Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

agunah

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: agu-nah
IPA

10

Scrabble Score

6

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A Jewish woman who is trapped in a marriage, either because her husband has disappeared or because he will not grant her a gett.

Example Sentences

"A woman may become an agunah either through her husband's accidental disappearance or through his willful desertion, although accidental disappearance constitutes the main source of difficulty."
"Widows, among them agunos, chose the Holy City as a way of expressing their eternal love for God."
"The problem of the agunah, the woman (or man) who is chained to a marriage and unable to free herself from this marriage, is not a new one."
"Our Master could see the agony of his little relative who was not yet fifteen and was already an agunah. He put aside all his civic affairs and obligations and even his regular lectures on Maimonides and Alfasi and began to look into the matter of freeing this agunah."

Etymology

Borrowed from Hebrew עגונה (“chained woman”).

Origin

Source language: Hebrew

Word Breakdown

Root: עגונה

Inflected Forms

agunahs (plural) agunot (plural) agunoth (plural) aguna (alternative)

Questions

What does agunah mean?: A Jewish woman who is trapped in a marriage, either because her husband has disappeared or because he will not grant her a gett.
Where does agunah come from?: It is traced to Hebrew.

How to pronounce agunah

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