מצית
“מצית” (мацит) — lighter in Hebrew. Noun, level A1. From the verb lehatzit, to ignite. Matches are gafrurim, the lighter is matzit: it lives in the jacket pocket and gets lost more often than keys. In a live sentence: “המצית במכונית.” — The lighter is in the car. Written with the characters מ, צ, י, ת. A word from the everyday Hebrew course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | מצית |
| Read in Latin letters | мацит |
| Translation | lighter |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From the verb lehatzit, to ignite. Matches are gafrurim, the lighter is matzit: it lives in the jacket pocket and gets lost more often than keys
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.
- המצית במכונית.ха-мацит ба-мехонит.The lighter is in the car.
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 “lighter” in Hebrew?
«מצית», read “мацит”. In a live sentence: “המצית במכונית.” — The lighter is in the car. Noun, level A1; written with the characters מ, צ, י, ת.
How is “מצית” written in Latin letters?
мацит. 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?
From the verb lehatzit, to ignite. Matches are gafrurim, the lighter is matzit: it lives in the jacket pocket and gets lost more often than keys. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.