hamantaschen

1 9.9

A triangular cookie with a sweet filling eaten during the Jewish holiday Purim

noun
/hɑːməˈtɑːʃən/

: hamantaschen

Every year, my grandmother bakes dozens of hamantaschen with poppy seed and apricot fillings for the holiday.
Bake hamantaschen
hamantaschen filled

Examples

Now it was time to make hamantaschen, the traditional Purim pastries.

Fiction book (1999)
Inexplicably, hamantaschen is a way of using up the jars and jars of preserved figs.

Fiction book (2001)
Mrs. Abrams next door would enjoy a basket of warm hamantaschen! "Oh, yes, Shana," said Great-Grandma, using a corner of her apron to wipe a smudge of flour from Shana's nose.

Fiction book (1999)
At the Purim celebration, we enjoyed a variety of hamantaschen, each filled with delicious fruit preserves.
The plate was overflowing with homemade hamantaschen, their sweet fillings hinting at the festive tradition they represent.

Surface Forms

hamantaschen singular

hamantaschen plural

Etymology

Hamantaschen comes from the name Haman, the bad man in the Purim story, plus a Yiddish/German word like tasche meaning 'pocket' or 'bag'. A helpful way to remember it is to picture the small triangular pastry as Haman's 'pocket' or 'hat', which is why these sweet filled triangles are eaten at Purim.