"רעל" meaning in Hebrew

See רעל in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈʁa(ʔ)al/ [Modern-Israeli] Audio: LL-Q9288 (heb)-Uziel302-רעל.wav Forms: רַעַל [canonical, masculine], rá'al [romanization]
Rhymes: -al Etymology: The word רַעַל appears once in the Bible in Zechariah 12:2 and understood there differently by different commentators and translators. Some understand it as "reeling" or "staggering", which corresponds to the Aramaic meaning of the identically-written word, so סף־רעל means "a cup that causes staggering", because it is intoxicating like wine. Others, like Rashi and David Altschuler (Metsudat David), interpreted it as "a killing drug", i.e. poison. The latter became the word's primary meaning in Modern Hebrew. The modern military slang sense of "morale" is influenced by the expression רוח הלחימה, "fighting spirit", which is abbreviated רה״ל, which, in turn, is pronounced similarly to רעל (see References). The root is perceived to be the same as the root of "poison", so for example, in this context, to "poison" someone (הרעיל) means to boost their morale. Etymology templates: {{lang|he|רַעַל}} רַעַל, {{lang|he|סף־רעל}} סף־רעל, {{lang|he|רה״ל}} רה״ל, {{lang|he|רעל}} רעל Head templates: {{he-noun|g=m|pat=קֶטֶל|tr=rá'al|wv=רַעַל}} רַעַל • (rá'al) m [pattern: קֶטֶל]
  1. poison
    Sense id: en-רעל-he-noun-V0Or3d36
  2. (Biblical, uncertain) reeling, trembling, staggering Tags: Biblical
    Sense id: en-רעל-he-noun-W5gwui1T Categories (other): Biblical Hebrew, Hebrew entries with incorrect language header, Hebrew terms in the pattern קֶטֶל Disambiguation of Hebrew entries with incorrect language header: 3 83 14 Disambiguation of Hebrew terms in the pattern קֶטֶל: 6 75 20
  3. (military slang) morale, motivation, fighting spirit Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-רעל-he-noun--Z2R0KTq Topics: government, military, politics, war
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: סַם (sam) [masculine]
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "רַעַל"
      },
      "expansion": "רַעַל",
      "name": "lang"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "סף־רעל"
      },
      "expansion": "סף־רעל",
      "name": "lang"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "רה״ל"
      },
      "expansion": "רה״ל",
      "name": "lang"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "רעל"
      },
      "expansion": "רעל",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The word רַעַל appears once in the Bible in Zechariah 12:2 and understood there differently by different commentators and translators. Some understand it as \"reeling\" or \"staggering\", which corresponds to the Aramaic meaning of the identically-written word, so סף־רעל means \"a cup that causes staggering\", because it is intoxicating like wine. Others, like Rashi and David Altschuler (Metsudat David), interpreted it as \"a killing drug\", i.e. poison. The latter became the word's primary meaning in Modern Hebrew.\nThe modern military slang sense of \"morale\" is influenced by the expression רוח הלחימה, \"fighting spirit\", which is abbreviated רה״ל, which, in turn, is pronounced similarly to רעל (see References). The root is perceived to be the same as the root of \"poison\", so for example, in this context, to \"poison\" someone (הרעיל) means to boost their morale.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "קֶטֶל",
      "tags": [
        "class"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "רַעַל",
      "tags": [
        "canonical",
        "masculine"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rá'al",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "g": "m",
        "pat": "קֶטֶל",
        "tr": "rá'al",
        "wv": "רַעַל"
      },
      "expansion": "רַעַל • (rá'al) m [pattern: קֶטֶל]",
      "name": "he-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Hebrew",
  "lang_code": "he",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "roman": "sam",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "סַם"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "poison"
      ],
      "id": "en-רעל-he-noun-V0Or3d36",
      "links": [
        [
          "poison",
          "poison"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Biblical Hebrew",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "3 83 14",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Hebrew entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 75 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Hebrew terms in the pattern קֶטֶל",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "reeling, trembling, staggering"
      ],
      "id": "en-רעל-he-noun-W5gwui1T",
      "qualifier": "uncertain",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Biblical, uncertain) reeling, trembling, staggering"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Biblical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "morale, motivation, fighting spirit"
      ],
      "id": "en-רעל-he-noun--Z2R0KTq",
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military slang) morale, motivation, fighting spirit"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "war"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʁa(ʔ)al/",
      "tags": [
        "Modern-Israeli"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q9288 (heb)-Uziel302-רעל.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-al"
    }
  ],
  "word": "רעל"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "Hebrew entries with incorrect language header",
    "Hebrew lemmas",
    "Hebrew masculine nouns",
    "Hebrew noun entries missing plural construct forms",
    "Hebrew noun entries missing plural forms",
    "Hebrew noun entries missing singular construct forms",
    "Hebrew nouns",
    "Hebrew terms in the pattern קֶטֶל",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:Hebrew/al",
    "Rhymes:Hebrew/al/2 syllables"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "רַעַל"
      },
      "expansion": "רַעַל",
      "name": "lang"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "סף־רעל"
      },
      "expansion": "סף־רעל",
      "name": "lang"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "רה״ל"
      },
      "expansion": "רה״ל",
      "name": "lang"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "he",
        "2": "רעל"
      },
      "expansion": "רעל",
      "name": "lang"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "The word רַעַל appears once in the Bible in Zechariah 12:2 and understood there differently by different commentators and translators. Some understand it as \"reeling\" or \"staggering\", which corresponds to the Aramaic meaning of the identically-written word, so סף־רעל means \"a cup that causes staggering\", because it is intoxicating like wine. Others, like Rashi and David Altschuler (Metsudat David), interpreted it as \"a killing drug\", i.e. poison. The latter became the word's primary meaning in Modern Hebrew.\nThe modern military slang sense of \"morale\" is influenced by the expression רוח הלחימה, \"fighting spirit\", which is abbreviated רה״ל, which, in turn, is pronounced similarly to רעל (see References). The root is perceived to be the same as the root of \"poison\", so for example, in this context, to \"poison\" someone (הרעיל) means to boost their morale.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "קֶטֶל",
      "tags": [
        "class"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "רַעַל",
      "tags": [
        "canonical",
        "masculine"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "rá'al",
      "tags": [
        "romanization"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "g": "m",
        "pat": "קֶטֶל",
        "tr": "rá'al",
        "wv": "רַעַל"
      },
      "expansion": "רַעַל • (rá'al) m [pattern: קֶטֶל]",
      "name": "he-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Hebrew",
  "lang_code": "he",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "roman": "sam",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "סַם"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "poison"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "poison",
          "poison"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Biblical Hebrew"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "reeling, trembling, staggering"
      ],
      "qualifier": "uncertain",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Biblical, uncertain) reeling, trembling, staggering"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Biblical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Hebrew military slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "morale, motivation, fighting spirit"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "military",
          "military"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(military slang) morale, motivation, fighting spirit"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "government",
        "military",
        "politics",
        "war"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʁa(ʔ)al/",
      "tags": [
        "Modern-Israeli"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q9288 (heb)-Uziel302-רעל.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/99/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav/LL-Q9288_%28heb%29-Uziel302-%D7%A8%D7%A2%D7%9C.wav.ogg"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-al"
    }
  ],
  "word": "רעל"
}

Download raw JSONL data for רעל meaning in Hebrew (3.2kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Hebrew dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.