Gematria calculator
Type any Hebrew word or phrase and see its numerical value instantly: four methods, with a letter-by-letter breakdown.
Go Deeper
The Derekh Learning app adds an AI word lookup: enter an English word, get its Hebrew translation, gematria, and a sourced insight into what shares its value, plus a daily gematria teaching.
What is gematria?
Every Hebrew letter also stands for a number, so every Hebrew word or phrase also adds up to a number. Gematria is the traditional practice of computing that total and looking for meaning in it, most often by noticing that two different words share the same value and are therefore linked in some way. It's one of the oldest tools of Jewish interpretation, used throughout rabbinic literature to draw connections a plain reading of the text would miss. Read more in what is gematria.
The four methods, explained
The calculator above computes a word four ways at once. Standard (mispar hechrachi) is the everyday method: each letter has a fixed value from 1 to 400, and a word's value is the sum. Large (mispar gadol) uses the same values except for the five Hebrew letters that take a different final form at the end of a word (ך, ם, ן, ף, ץ), which are valued 500 through 900 instead of their regular 20 through 90. Ordinal (mispar siduri) ignores the standard values entirely and just counts each letter's position in the alphabet, 1 through 22. Reduced (mispar katan) takes the standard total and repeatedly sums its digits until a single digit remains, so 376 (shalom) becomes 3+7+6=16, then 1+6=7. A related but separate device, atbash, isn't a numerical value at all: it's a cipher that swaps each letter for its mirror opposite in the alphabet, and it shows up a few times in the Hebrew Bible.
Well-known gematria values
Standard (mispar hechrachi) values, verified against the calculator above.
| Hebrew | Word | Meaning | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| חי | Chai | life | 18 |
| אחד | Echad | one | 13 |
| אהבה | Ahavah | love | 13 |
| שלום | Shalom | peace | 376 |
| תורה | Torah | Torah | 611 |
| יין | Yayin | wine | 70 |
| סוד | Sod | secret | 70 |
Yayin (wine) and sod (secret) sharing a value of 70 is a well-known pairing: tradition connects the two with the saying "when wine goes in, a secret comes out."
Frequently asked questions
What is gematria?
Gematria is the traditional Jewish system of assigning numerical values to Hebrew letters (א=1, ב=2 … ת=400). Words with equal values are often linked interpretively: the classic example is chai (חי), "life," which equals 18.
How do the different gematria methods differ?
Standard (mispar hechrachi) uses the base values with final letters equal to their regular forms. Mispar gadol values the five final letters 500-900 instead. Mispar siduri uses each letter's ordinal position (1-22). Mispar katan (reduced) sums the digits of the standard total down to a single number.
What is atbash?
Atbash is a Hebrew letter-substitution cipher, not a numerical value: it swaps each letter with its mirror image in the alphabet (the first letter for the last, the second for the second-to-last, and so on). It appears a handful of times in the Hebrew Bible and is a well-known example of Jewish wordplay, separate from gematria's number system.
Why is 18 a special number in Judaism?
Because the word chai (חי), meaning "life," has a gematria of 18 (ח=8 + י=10). That's why charitable gifts are traditionally given in multiples of 18.
Why do two unrelated Hebrew words sometimes share a gematria value?
With only 22 letters and word lengths usually short, many different words land on the same standard total by coincidence. Tradition treats a shared value as an invitation to look for a connection between the words, not as a rule that must be true.
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