שלום
sha-LOM
Peace; hello; goodbye.
What does it literally mean — and what do Israelis actually mean?
What it literally means
Literal: "completeness, well-being, peace."
שלום! מה שלומך היום?Shalom! Ma shlomcha ha-yom?Hi! How are you today?
What Israelis actually mean
Peace; hello; goodbye; and the compound world of shalom bayit and ma shlomcha.
הם חתמו על הסכם שלום בוושינגטון.Hem chatmu al heskem shalom be-Washington.They signed a peace agreement in Washington.
Where did this word come from?
Common Semitic (Akkadian šalāmu, Arabic salām) — "wholeness, completeness, well-being," hence peace as the *state of intactness*, not merely absence of war. Biblical throughout (first in Genesis 15:15). As a greeting, "shalom aleikhem" (peace upon you) is rabbinic-era; modern Israeli Hebrew collapsed it to bare "shalom" for both hello and goodbye — the bare-word greeting is modern usage, regularized in the revival era.
Register & social context
Universal. Israelis say "shalom" as casually as "hi," with zero ceremonial weight — and it is also the weightiest word in the language.
Root & morphology
Root ש.ל.מ ("complete, whole"). Family: shalem (whole), le-shalem (to pay — "complete" a debt), mushlam (perfect), shleimut (wholeness).
Influences & contact languages
- Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Native Hebrew, Common Semitic root š-l-m "whole, complete" (Akkadian šalāmu, Arabic salām).
- Arabic· contactArabic salām — the living cognate greeting across the Levant.
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
שלום! מה שלומך היום?
Shalom! Ma shlomcha ha-yom?
Hi! How are you today?
הם חתמו על הסכם שלום בוושינגטון.
Hem chatmu al heskem shalom be-Washington.
They signed a peace agreement in Washington.
What English speakers get wrong
It's not only "peace" — the root is about *wholeness* (paying a debt is "completing" it); and Israelis say "shalom" as casually as "hi," with zero ceremonial weight.
What lives next to this word?
Sources & review
Want to use this word? Understand it inside a full sentence — Open Baba →