עצם
“עצם” (эцэм) — a bone in Hebrew. Noun, level A2. The same word means the essence and the self: be-etzem — in principle, in short. The skeleton is kol ha-etzamot. In a live sentence: “העצם ביד שלי כואבת.” — The bone in my hand hurts. Written with the characters ע, צ. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | עצם |
| Read in Latin letters | эцэм |
| Translation | a bone |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
The same word means the essence and the self: be-etzem — in principle, in short. The skeleton is kol ha-etzamot
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- העצם ביד שלי כואבת.ха-эцэм бэ-яд шели коэвэт.The bone in my hand hurts.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “a bone” in Hebrew?
«עצם», read “эцэм”. In a live sentence: “העצם ביד שלי כואבת.” — The bone in my hand hurts. Noun, level A2; written with the characters ע, צ.
How is “עצם” written in Latin letters?
эцэм. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The same word means the essence and the self: be-etzem — in principle, in short. The skeleton is kol ha-etzamot. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.