zayin

Zayin is the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its name means weapon or sword in Hebrew, reflecting its etymology in Semitic scripts. In the traditional order of the alphabet, zayin follows vav and precedes het.

Phonetically, zayin is a consonant with the sound /z/ in modern Hebrew, as in the name of the letter itself. In older inscriptions, the pronunciation was similarly /z/.

Numeric value: In Hebrew numerology (gematria), zayin represents the number seven. Unlike final-forms used by some letters, zayin has no distinct final form and is written the same way in all positions.

Origins and shape: Zayin derives from the Proto-Canaanite letter for weapon, passing through Phoenician zayin to the Hebrew form ז. The letter is one of the few without a separate final form.

Usage in language: The letter appears frequently in Biblical and modern Hebrew, where it functions as a regular consonant and appears in many common words and names.

Encoding: In Unicode, zayin is assigned U+05D6, and it is typically represented as the character ז.