dayan

D2A1Y4A1N1

noun

A rabbinic judge.

UncommonScrabble 9

Meanings

dayan1

noundayan (plural dayans or dayanim)

plural dayans · plural dayanim · alternative dayyan

  1. A rabbinic judge.

    A medieval hymn composed by the Dayyan ("Judge") Daniel b. Yehudah of fourteenth-century Rome, recited in the daily morning Preliminary Service, and by some, at the close of the Arvit and Musaf services on Shabbat and festivals.

    1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 375
    1 more example

    There is a famous story about Rabbi Yisrael Salanter who ate on the Bimah in Vilna at the end of the Yom Kippur morning service in 1848 during a cholera epidemic, together with two other Dayyanim, to persuade the congregation to eat during the epidemic.

    2024, David Golinkin, “Does Jewish Law Require Yeshivah Students To Be Drafted At Age 18?”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 4, page 66

Dayan2

proper nounDayan (plural Dayans)

plural Dayans

  1. A surname from Hebrew.

    The Samson Option states that Moshe Dayan gave the go-ahead for starting weapon production in early 1968, putting the plutonium separation plant into full operation.

    2009 June 7, Filipe, CNN, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2023

Origin

dayan · noun

  1. Hebrewדיין
  2. Hebrewדיין
  3. Englishdayan

Borrowed from Hebrew דיין.

Full word history & related roots →

Dayan · proper noun

  1. Hebrewדַּיָּן“rabbinic judge”
  2. EnglishDayan

Jewish surname from Hebrew דַּיָּן (“rabbinic judge”).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

dayan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dayan

MLA

“dayan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dayan. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dayan,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dayan.

Source: dayan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.