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Yiddish Loan Words

These Yiddish words have made their way into the English language. Click each correct word based on its meaning.
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Featured Quiz
Last updated: May 22, 2024
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First submittedMay 22, 2024
Times taken13,213
Average score55.0%
Rating4.49
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A clumsy person
A nose, especially a large one
Audacity
To carry with difficulty
A minor problem or error
To complain
A non-Jewish person
Smoked salmon
To chat someone up
To snack
A great guy, a person of integrity
Zero, zilch, nothing
One's typical comic routine
A thin pancake rolled and stuffed with cream
A trinket
A woman who meddles in the business of others
Excessive sentimentality
Pleasantly plump
Crazy
To give unwanted suggestions especially in a card game
Blintz
Bupkis
Chutzpah
Glitch
Goy
Kibitz
Klutz
Kvetch
Lox
Mensch
Meshugge
Nosh
Schlep
Schmaltz
Schmooze
Schnozz
Shtick
Tchotchke
Yenta
Zaftig
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35 Comments
Dimby
+13
Level 80
May 23, 2024
I don’t mean to kvell, but I knew all these.
barmanitan
+11
Level 82
May 23, 2024
I swear I've read the caveats, and I'm willing to accept my banishment, but not having heard of 12 of these feels excessive lol. Really shows how much more influence Yiddish had on American English
Quizmaster
+10
Level ∞
May 23, 2024
No. Bad. Shame. Shame!!!
Hapsburg
+4
Level 76
May 28, 2024
A shanda fur die goyim
Kingsfisher
+3
Level 66
May 23, 2024
The Russian language has also transferred quite a lot of borrowings from Yiddish, for example, I immediately recognized the word chutzpah and goy. However, the rest of the examples in Russian, at least to me, did not occur, but we have "khokhma", "schnobel" and "blat", and, maybe, many of Russian jargonisms are from Yiddish.
Algernon
+3
Level 73
May 23, 2024
Ten out of twenty, one of which was a flukey last second guess. I have to admit I haven't heard of all the words I missed. Still an interesting quiz though.
Dontneedone
+1
Level 80
May 23, 2024
Only got 8, one of which I guessed. I don't think I've even heard of most of these
DonTheLamplighter
+1
Level 86
May 24, 2024
I feel like I just watched a Woody Allen movie. (BTW, blintzes are amazing; and lox w/cream cheese on a cinnamon-raisin bagel is out of this world!)
Philippelebel
+2
Level 71
Jun 25, 2024
Watching Seinfeld also helped this goy a lot!
Qikiq
+6
Level 88
May 24, 2024
I can imagine this is difficult for those who speak British English. I'm curious about how Americans do depending on where they live. I grew up just outside of NYC, so these were all words I hear and use frequently (and I'm as goy as they come). I'm wondering if it's the same for those in the Midwest or the South, for example.
PrettyTiedUp
+1
Level 70
May 24, 2024
This Brit got all but lox right (for some reason I assumed it was cream cheese!). But I am familiar with every single one of the other words. Nosh is also British slang for food in general, not just a snack.
greenapple7
+1
Level 63
May 24, 2024
From New England: I knew 13, got 16 right (a few guesses).
DonTheLamplighter
+1
Level 86
May 24, 2024
From NJ. Got 'em all, but had to guess between "meshugge" and "tchotchke", tho the former seemed more likely to be an adjective (crazy) than the latter.
Sifhraven
+2
Level 73
May 25, 2024
From the Netherlands and I got em all. I knew I think 8 with certainty. And there were a few words I recognized but only had a vague idea about. Some (quite a few!) I had never heard of, but could work out by using common sense, or maybe gut instinct. (like does it feel like a verb or a noun, and just what would feel/sound better.)

I think in Dutch the only word (here) we use is Meshugge (written as mesjôgge). But some other words are close to Dutch or German

Klutz= Dutch kluns

Shnozz =German Schnauze (Dutch snuit, but that is snout, only for animals)

German Mensch and Dutch mens but just meaning human.

Schlep=Dutch slepen

Sifhraven
+2
Level 73
May 25, 2024
schmooze schmaltz tchotchke yenta kibitz and zaftig were the ones I had never heard of.

But zaftig for instance sounded like a description because of the -ig

Of those above yenta sounded the most like refering to a person and specifically female.

Ah and now I notice we have the word smoesen which sort of means whisper/gossip (speak hush hush) so atleast it got a talking connection.

The -ke on tchotchke sounded like a diminutive so a trinket would fit.

Which leaves schmaltz and kibitz, well the first one just felt/sounded more sentimental. I guess somehow because of the s sounds. (in Dutch smachten is yearn and smelt is to melt no idea what that has got to do with it but sometimes certain types of words have certain sounds. like slither and slide)

sumokitty
+1
Level 85
Jun 25, 2024
Interesting analysis!

Schmaltz is a word for chicken fat (the equivalent of lard for pork fat and tallow for beef fat), so I think the implication is something overly rich. British people say treacly (i.e., overly sweet) to mean the same thing.

Nachtschicht
+1
Level 59
Oct 2, 2024
zaftig very much sounds (reads) like the german "saftig", which means juicy.

The german word is also often used to describe something good, big or great, like a reward, a raise, but also not so pleasant things like a slap in the face (eine saftige Ohrfeige)

GollossalKitty
+1
Level 43
Apr 3, 2025
prolly cuz it is saftig spelled differently
vermiciousknid
+2
Level 90
Jun 25, 2024
I'm from the southern US and I got them all. I was familiar with all the terms except for kibitz, but got that one by process of elimination.
sumokitty
+1
Level 85
Jun 25, 2024
I'm originally from the Midwest and got them all, but I lived in the NYC area for 15 years.
tetey2222
+2
Level 23
May 24, 2024
The only one that I got was glitch. 😭
MayaB
+1
Level 73
May 26, 2024
Very interesting quiz! I got 14. Some I knew from watching American TV series and the Netflix show Unorthodox (I strongly recommend it), for a lot of the other ones it helped that I speak German.
YTBRSosyalEmre
+1
Level 65
May 28, 2024
Bupkis out of twenty lol
Hapsburg
+1
Level 76
May 28, 2024
I got 19/20 first try. Never heard about 7 of these but could figure them out from context, didn't know what 2 meant and didn't realize glitch was yiddish since its so common to refer to computers. The other ten was about half and half ones I've heard in real life and in movies. I didn't realize tchotchke was spelled like that
dunkinggandalf2
+5
Level 71
May 30, 2024
This is pretty doable if you speak German, since Yiddish is essentially a dialect of High-German, with the incorporation of some Hebrew words. Many of these words have direct equivalents in modern German, even if the meaning is sometimes a little different (obviously Mensch, but also Schnauze, Lachs, schleppen, quatschen, Schmalz, saftig, naschen...).
BenjiSG
+2
Level 65
Jul 17, 2024
a shprakh iz a dyalekt mit an armey un flot
RuthlessCosmo
+3
Level 75
Jun 25, 2024
Years ago I had a Taiwanese-American client in the branded merchandise business (think hats, keychains, pens—anything you can put your logo and a slogan on to give to employees or potential customers) who was having his deposition taken. At one point he referred to his products as "charge keys," which the court reporter could not figure out. It took me a few seconds to realize he was giving us a variant of "tchotchkes"—another example how we English-speakers will turn borrowed words into new ones (look up the origins of "kickshaws" and "denim," to take two out of hundreds of examples).
Fannibaling
+3
Level 69
Jun 25, 2024
I'm Italian, but I watched The Nanny a lot, and my best friend is from a Jewish family in Brooklyn. I got 19/20! She'll be pleased
erikj
+2
Level 66
Jun 25, 2024
this was my main source too, haha!
MaxTheAxe
+1
Level 75
Jun 25, 2024
Got em all, but I did skip a few at the beginning being kind of overwhelmed by the number of choices. Lots of fun! Mazel Tov!
PineappleW
+2
Level 74
Jun 25, 2024
I think of schmaltz primarily as literal chicken fat, instead of the metaphor for sentimentality.
MCdoesgeography
+1
Level 71
Jun 2, 2025
It has a double meaning in German.
eurotec
+1
Level 49
Jun 26, 2024
I only got 2..
GollossalKitty
+1
Level 43
Apr 3, 2025
I only got seven but that's the only ones people have used
MCdoesgeography
+1
Level 71
Jun 2, 2025
As a German, quite easy.
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