Gershayim (Hebrew:גֵּרְשַׁיִם‎, withoutniqqudגרשיים‎), also occasionallygrashayim^[1] (גְּרָשַׁיִם‎), can refer to either of two distincttypographical marks in theHebrew language. The name literally means "doublegeresh".

Gershayim most commonly refers to thepunctuation mark⟨״⟩. It is always written before the last letter of the non-inflected form of a word or numeral. It is used in the following ways:

• To indicate aHebrew acronym.^[2] For example:דּוּ״חַ‎ (singular),דּוּ״חוֹת‎ (plural), "report" representsדיןוחשבון‎; andמ״כ‎ (masculine),מַ״כִּית‎ (feminine), "squad commander" representsמפקדכיתה‎.
• To indicate a multi-digitHebrew numeral. For example:י״ח‎ represents 18.^[3]
• To indicate the names of Hebrew letters, differentiating them from anyhomographs.^[2] Compareהוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִן‎ "he sketched aneye" withהוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִ״ן‎ "he sketched anayin".
• To indicate Hebrew wordroots.^[2] For example: the root ofתַּשְׁבֵּצִים‎/taʃbeˈtsim/ "crossword puzzles" isשב״צ‎ (š—b—ṣ); the root ofלְהַטּוֹת‎/lehaˈtot/ "to tilt, to conjugate" isנט״ה‎ (n—ṭ—h); and the root ofהִסְתַּנְכְּרְנוּת‎/histankreˈnut/ "being synchronized" isסנכר״נ‎ (s–n–k–r–n).
• In older texts, to indicate thetransliteration of a foreign word. This use corresponds toEnglish's use ofitalics. For example, in printed works ofRashi, the town of Rashi's birth,Troyes, is spelledטרוי״ש‎.

Gershayim is a disjunctivecantillation accent in theTanakh (Jewish bible) -◌֞. It is placed above the stressed syllable, as inוַיִּקַּ֞ח (Genesis 22:3).^[1]

Most keyboards do not have a key for the gershayim punctuation; as a result, aquotation mark is often substituted for it. The cantillation accent however is generally not typed, as it plays a completely different role and can occur in the middle of words (it does not mark any word separation), or marked using a different interlinear notation if needed (such as superscripts or other notational symbols).

Look up״ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Hebrew alphabet
• Hebrew diacritics
• Hebrew punctuation

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