קיבוץ
ki-BUTZ
Collective agricultural community.
What does it literally mean — and what do Israelis actually mean?
What it literally means
Literal: "gathering, ingathering."
סבתא שלי עלתה ארצה והצטרפה לקיבוץ בגליל.Savta sheli alta artza ve-hitstarefa le-kibbutz ba-Galil.My grandmother immigrated and joined a kibbutz in the Galilee.
What Israelis actually mean
The collective commune — and the exported institution-name in world languages.
בקיבוץ של פעם כולם אכלו יחד בחדר האוכל.Ba-kibbutz shel pa'am kulam achlu yachad be-chadar ha-ochel.In the old-time kibbutz everyone ate together in the dining hall.
Where did this word come from?
From root ק.ב.ץ "gather" — biblical "kibbutz galuyot," the prophetic ingathering of exiles. The modern institution: the first kvutza (small commune), Degania, founded 1909/1910 on the Jordan's exit from the Sea of Galilee; the larger communal settlement form took the name kibbutz in the 1920s. The word spread worldwide as one of Hebrew's most successful exports ("kibbutz" in every major dictionary).
Register & social context
Universal; iconic. Note the hierarchy: kvutza (small intimate commune) preceded the larger kibbutz; kibbutznik = a member.
Root & morphology
Root ק.ב.ץ ("gather, collect"). קיבוץ = gathering; kvutza (קבוצה) = the smaller pre-kibbutz commune.
Influences & contact languages
- Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Biblical root ק.ב.ץ "gather" — the prophetic "ingathering of exiles" applied to Degania, 1909/1910.
- English· contactExported worldwide as "kibbutz" — the Israeli collective in every dictionary.
Which places are associated with this word?
This word travels through people, not places — so we don't pin it.
See where it lives in the language constellationHear it in the wild
סבתא שלי עלתה ארצה והצטרפה לקיבוץ בגליל.
Savta sheli alta artza ve-hitstarefa le-kibbutz ba-Galil.
My grandmother immigrated and joined a kibbutz in the Galilee.
בקיבוץ של פעם כולם אכלו יחד בחדר האוכל.
Ba-kibbutz shel pa'am kulam achlu yachad be-chadar ha-ochel.
In the old-time kibbutz everyone ate together in the dining hall.
What English speakers get wrong
Not every Israeli farm is a kibbutz (moshav = cooperative smallholders; moshava = private colony); and the "kibbutznik" stereotype ( sandals, shorts, idealism) is a type, not a rule.
What lives next to this word?
See the language constellation
Follow this word into a guided story
Sources & review
Want to use this word? Understand it inside a full sentence — Open Baba →