Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎉 A Jewish ceremony 🎉 To confirm religiously
to bat mitzvah

to bat mitzvah

8.5
To mark a girl at about 12 as an adult in the Jewish faith by a religious ceremony
  • verb
  • /bæt ˈmɪtsvɑː/
translation icon : celebrar la bat mitzvá
  • Her daughter will bat mitzvah next spring at their synagogue.

Examples

  • He helped bat mitzvah his niece by reading a blessing during the ceremony.

  • Many families choose to bat mitzvah their daughters as part of a large celebration.

  • Sarah will bat mitzvah next month.

  • They are planning to bat mitzvah her in June.

  • At the age of 13, she was finally ready to bat mitzvah and take on new responsibilities in her community.

  • After her family celebrated her bat mitzvah, she felt a deep connection to her faith.

  • Many girls look forward to their bat mitzvah as a significant rite of passage in the Jewish tradition.

Synonyms

to mitzvahed
vsto bat mitzvah
9.9

To take part in a Jewish ceremony that marks becoming an adult usually at age thirteen

refers only to a girl confirmed by the coming-of-age ceremony at age twelve or thirteen

Surface Forms

bat mitzvah infinitive
bat mitzvah'd past
bat mitzvah'd past participle
bat mitzvahing present participle
bat mitzvahs third person singular

Morphology

bat + mitzvah

Although 'mitzvah' means a commandment or good deed and 'bat' is a Hebrew word meaning 'daughter', this cultural and etymological information is not likely known to an average B1 learner; the phrase refers to a specific coming-of-age ceremony rather than a literal combination of the parts. The meaning is culturally specific and not transparently derivable from the constituent words for most learners, so prior exposure is needed.

Etymology

Bat mitzvah as a verb comes from the same Hebrew words bat 'daughter' and mitzvah 'good deed'. It means to perform the ceremony that marks a girl as an adult in the Jewish community, so the verb means 'to give a girl a bat mitzvah'.