Standard Lemma guide

goy

name · noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ɡɔɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɔɪ
  • CMU ARPABET: G OY1 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

name

Meaning 1

A surname.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

A non-Jew, a gentile.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: offensive, sometimes

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: gentile, non-Jew, akum, shegetz, shkotz

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Synonym of shabbos goy (“a gentile thought to be subservient to Jewish people”)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: derogatory

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: shabbos goy

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Alternative letter-case form of goy.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

a Christian as contrasted with a Jew

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: gentile, non-Jew

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: Christian

Narrower terms: shegetz

History

Etymology

Various origins: * English habitational surname of Norman origin, from any of various places in France called Gouy. * Borrowed from Galician Goy, a habitational surname from a small village in the province of Lugo. * Borrowed from French Goy, a metonymic occupational surname for a farmer, from Old French goi (“bill hook, kind of knife”). * Borrowed from Hokkien 倪 (gê); compare Ni, which derives from the standard Chinese pronunciation of these characters.

Etymology tree Biblical Hebrew גּוֹי (goi)bor. Yiddish גוי (goy)bor. English goy Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, “gentile”), borrowed from Biblical Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, “nation”). The term goy does not technically refer to non-Jews, but rather to a nation per se; the Jews are said to constitute a goy. But through common usage – namely referring to "the [other non-Jewish] nations" – the word came to colloquially refer to non-Jews.

Across languages

Translations

28 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: jo-hebre — non-Jew
  • Arabic: أَغْيَار (ʔaḡyār) — non-Jew
  • Arabic: جُوي (jūy) — non-Jew
  • Catalan: Goy — non-Jew
  • Czech: gój — non-Jew
  • Danish: ikke-jøde — non-Jew
  • Dutch: niet-Jood — non-Jew
  • Dutch: goj — non-Jew
  • Esperanto: gojo — non-Jew
  • Esperanto: nejudo — non-Jew
  • French: goy — non-Jew
  • French: goï — non-Jew
  • German: Goi — non-Jew
  • German: Nichtjude — non-Jew
  • Hebrew: גּוֹי (goi) — non-Jew
  • Hindi: गोय (goy) — non-Jew
  • Hungarian: gój — non-Jew
  • Italian: Goy — non-Jew
  • Japanese: ゴイ (goi) — non-Jew
  • Persian: گوی (gowy) — non-Jew
  • Polish: Goj — non-Jew
  • Portuguese: goy — non-Jew
  • Portuguese: gói — non-Jew
  • Russian: гой (goj) — non-Jew
  • Spanish: goy — non-Jew
  • Swedish: goj — non-Jew
  • Ukrainian: гой (hoj) — non-Jew
  • Yiddish: גוי (goy) — non-Jew