tsadi

Tsadi is the 18th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In Hebrew script it is written as צ and has a final form, ץ, used at the end of words. It is derived from the Phoenician letter ṣade and shares its name with related Semitic alphabets. The letter is also known by alternative transliterations such as tzadi or tsadi.

In Modern Hebrew, tsadi represents the voiceless alveolar affricate /t͡s/, commonly transliterated as ts or tz. The standard form צ is used in the body of words, while the final form ץ appears only at word endings. The pronunciation remains an affricate in standard usage.

Tsadi occupies a fixed place in the alphabet, following ayin and preceding qof. In gematria, the traditional numeric value of tsadi is 90. The final form retains the same qualitative value in numerical calculations within traditional Hebrew numerology.

The letter appears in many common Hebrew words, such as צדק (tzedek, justice), צדיק (tzaddik, righteous), and ציפור (tsipor, bird). It is also part of roots and patterns that contribute to forms like ס-צ-ד-ק and related derivatives, illustrating how tsadi participates in a range of semantic fields.

Beyond Hebrew, tsadi appears in other Semitic-derived scripts and in Jewish languages such as Yiddish, with similar phonetic and orthographic roles. The two written forms, צ and ץ, reflect its positional changes within words and its continued use in representing the /t͡s/ sound.