Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person trained in Jewish law, ritual, and tradition and ordained for leadership of a Jewish congregation, especially one serving as chief religious official of a synagogue.
  • noun A scholar qualified to interpret Jewish law.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Literally, ‘my master’: a title of respect or of office (of higher dignity than rab) given to Jewish doctors or expounders of the law.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Master; lord; teacher; -- a Jewish title of respect or honor for a teacher or doctor of the law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Jewish spiritual teacher.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation; qualified to expound and apply Jewish law
  • noun a Hebrew title of respect for a Jewish scholar or teacher

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English rabi, from Old French, from Late Latin rabbī, master, from Greek rhabbi, O my master, from Hebrew and Aramaic rabbî, my master : rab, master (from rab, to become great; see rbb in Semitic roots) + , my; see -y in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin rabbi, and its source Ancient Greek ῥαββί, from (post-biblical) Hebrew רבי (rabbi, "my master"), from רַב (ráv, “master [of]”) +‎ ־־י (-i, “me”).

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