Zayin (ז) — Seventh Letter of the Hebrew Alphabet

Characteristics

• Name: Zayin (ז)
• Sound: /z/ (voiced alveolar fricative)
• Numerical value: 7 (gematria)
• Final form: none — Zayin does not have a distinct final variant
• Transliterations: zayin, zain, zayn, zay

The printed and handwritten shapes of Zayin differ slightly: the block (square) script used in Hebrew print has a simple vertical stroke with a small horizontal or angled serif at the top, while cursive and handwritten forms may show a loop or tail. Because it has no sofit (final) form, the same glyph is used at the end of words.

The letter has an ancient origin. Its Phoenician predecessor shared a form and name that linguists associate with a pictograph often interpreted as a weapon or tool. Over time this Phoenician character influenced neighboring scripts and produced several descendants: the Greek zeta, the Latin Z, and the Cyrillic Ze (З). Evolution of the letter's shapes from early Semitic inscriptions to later alphabets can be followed visually:

Beyond phonetics and numerals, Zayin appears in religious, literary and mystical contexts. In Jewish exegetical tradition and Kabbalistic symbolism, letters and their numerical values are often interpreted symbolically; the value seven connected to Zayin is associated widely with completeness and cycles in biblical motifs. Such symbolic use varies by source and interpretive school.

In modern usage Zayin functions as an ordinary consonant in Hebrew and in languages that borrow the Hebrew script (for example Yiddish). Its clear correspondence to the /z/ sound makes it straightforward to transliterate into Latin alphabets. When studying alphabetic history, Zayin is notable as a stable consonantal sign whose identity persisted while its visual form adapted in many alphabets derived from Phoenician.