Tetragrammaton

American Heritage Dictionary:

Tet·ra·gram·ma·ton

(tĕt'rə-grăm'ə-tŏn') pronunciation

n.
The four Hebrew letters usually transliterated as YHWH or JHVH, used as a biblical proper name for God.

[Middle English Tetragramaton, from Greek tetragrammaton, four-letter word, from neuter of tetragrammatos, four-lettered : tetra-, tetra- + gramma, grammat-, letter.]

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Tetragrammaton

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Four Hebrew consonants yod, he, vav, and he — variously transliterated as JHVH, JHWH, YHWH, or YHVH — that together represent the name of God. Traditionally the tetragrammaton is not pronounced; Jehovah and Yahweh are two vocalizations of it.

For more information on Tetragrammaton, visit Britannica.com.

Obscure Words:

tetragrammaton

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[Gk, four-letter word] spec. the Hebrew word written YHWH or JHVH, vocalized as YaHWeH or JeHoVaH; often substituted for the ineffable name of God

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Tetragrammaton

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Some good "Tetragrammaton" pages on the web:

Judaism
www.pantheon.org

Related answers:

	A divine name derived from the verb to be expressed in the tetragrammaton and too holy to pronounce? Read answer...
	How many times is the tetragrammaton translated as the word Jehovah in the New World Translation of the Bible as used by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society? Read answer...
	Is the tetragrammaton\'s origin from the mystical Babylonian Kabbalah and if so are the names of Yahweh and Jehovah fabrications and useless? Read answer...

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		American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more

	Jehovah (God)
	YHWH (Hebrew Tetragrammaton)
	Yahweh (God)