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Definition 2024


gematria

gematria

English

Noun

gematria (countable and uncountable, plural gematrias or gematriot)

  1. A Kabbalistic method of interpreting Hebrew words, based on numerical values of letters.
    • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon:
      Suppose a secret force of Jesuits, receives each Day a summary of Observations made at Greenwich, and transcalculates it according to a system known to the Kabbalists of the Second Century as Gematria, whereby Messages may be extracted from lines of Text sacred and otherwise, a Knowledge preserv’d by various Custodians over the centuries, and since the Last, possess’d by Jesuit and Freemason alike.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 897:
      each letter in this alphabet also has its own numerical value, what was known among ancient Jewish students of the Torah as ‘gematria’.

Derived terms