Meaning & use
minyan
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Meanings
nouncountablereligion
The minimum group of ten adult Jews needed for certain prayers and religious services to take place.
Grammar: Often used with make, need or have: we need one more for a minyan.
Patterns
- make a minyan
- a minyan of ten
We waited by the door until a tenth person arrived to complete the minyan.
The synagogue holds a morning minyan every weekday at seven.
Without a minyan, the congregation could not recite the mourner's prayer.
nouncountablereligion
A regular prayer gathering, or the people who attend it.
Grammar: Used for the service itself: go to the evening minyan.
Patterns
- go to minyan
- lead the minyan
He goes to the early minyan before work.
The campus has a small student minyan on Friday evenings.
Our minyan is friendly and welcomes visitors.
Word forms
| plural | minyans |
|---|---|
| plural | minyanim |
Common combinations
- make a minyan
- A visitor helped make a minyan for the evening prayer.
- complete the minyan
- The tenth man arrived and completed the minyan.
- morning minyan
- The morning minyan starts at six-thirty.
- need a minyan
- We need a minyan to say Kaddish.
- join a minyan
- She joined a minyan near her new apartment.
Synonyms and how they differ
- quorum
- Quorum is a general word for the minimum number of members needed for a meeting, while minyan is specifically the ten needed in Jewish worship.
- congregation
- Congregation means the whole community of worshippers, not the minimum number needed to hold a service.
Word family
- minyanim noun
- Hebrew plural of minyan
Commonly confused: minyan or minion?
minyan vs minion
A minion is a servant or follower of a powerful person, which sounds similar but has a completely different meaning.
Practice
Why did the rabbi say the service could not begin yet?
Choose one answer.
Certain prayers require a minyan of ten adults, so the service waits until enough people arrive. The other reasons are not the usual meaning of the word.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “minyan”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.