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Grammar

What’s the Right Way to Spell ‘Hanukkah’? It Depends.

A Menorah with candle lit to commemorate HanukkahDeposit Photos

The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah falls generally between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But calendars disagree on how to spell it.

Every winter, people of the Jewish faith mark Hanukkah, an annual festival that is also known as the “Festival of Lights.”

The eight-day celebration commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the second century B.C.E. during the Maccabean revolt against oppressive Greek rulers. But as people prepared the temple for its rededication, they found a limited amount of oil available. The oil would only be enough to burn a candle for a single day.

But miraculously, the candle didn’t burn out at the end of that day. It continued burning for eight days. The Menorah, the candelabra associated with the holiday, holds nine candles: one for each of the days and a ninth place (in the center) for the shamash, the candle used to light each of the remaining candles.

As for the occasion itself, there are definitely multiple ways to spell it. Is there one “official” way? Well, it depends on your style manual and — probably to some degree — your faith.

You may see the word spelled as starting with a C instead of an H. But consider this list of spelling variations:

  • Chanuka
  • Chanukah
  • Chanukkah
  • Channukah
  • Hanukah
  • Hannukah
  • Hanukkah
  • Hanuka
  • Hanukka
  • Hanaka
  • Haneka
  • Hanika
  • Khanukkah

Should it start with a CH- or H? One K or two? One N or two? (I’ve honestly never seen the KH- version, but I’m sure it exists.)

How can one name have so many spellings?

The biggest reason for the spelling discrepancy involves translating the Hebrew alphabet to English. It can be tricky to translate from any language to another. But some languages have sound combinations — and even letters — that other languages can’t really replicate easily.

Wikipedia gives a far more detailed analysis of the spelling challenge. Here’s just one brief snippet:

…the letter ?eth, which is the first letter in the Hebrew spelling, is pronounced differently in modern Hebrew (voiceless uvular fricative) from in classical Hebrew (voiceless pharyngeal fricative), and neither of those sounds is unambiguously representable in English spelling. However, its original sound is closer to the English H than to the Scottish Ch, and Hanukkah more accurately represents the spelling in the Hebrew alphabet.

Click the link above and there are even more details! That’s if you really want to know!

But dodging too deep a dive into the mechanics of the translation difficulty, we’re still left with the question of which spelling is “most” correct.

Here’s the simple reason I picked ‘Hanukkah’ over the others

With the real job, I rely on The Associated Press Stylebook as my style guide. Newsrooms and other organizations use that source to standardize spelling and wording.

AP Style prefers the Hanukkah spelling. Merriam-Webster, which is now AP’s preferred word authority, also favors that spelling. The Collins English Dictionary, the Oxford Style Manual, and the style guides of both The New York Times and The Guardian, also spell it that way. A quick survey of newspapers, including The Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times spell it that way.

The Detroit Jewish News is an example of a newspaper that prefers Chanukah.

If it weren’t specified by a style manual that I rely on, I’d probably pick the spelling someone of the Jewish faith who is close to me might choose. Of my Jewish co-workers, I’ve never heard one object to either spelling though they surely have one they tend to use themselves, whether even they agree or not.

So that’s my reasoning for shooting Hanukkah as the “official” spelling for this site.

In 2024, Hanukkah begins at sundown on Christmas Day and continues through Jan. 2.

However you choose to spell it, I hope it is a day of peace for you and your family.

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.
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