The four Hebrew letters on a dreidel, Nun (נ), Gimel (ג), Hey (ה) and Shin (ש), stand for Nes Gadol Haya Sham: "A great miracle happened there." In the game they double as instructions: nothing, take all, take half, and put one in.
Two meanings on one top
Every letter on a dreidel is doing two jobs. It's the first letter of a word in a Hebrew sentence about the Hanukkah miracle, and it's a game instruction. That's a neat trick for four little letters.
The Hebrew phrase
| Letter | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| נ Nun | נס Nes | miracle |
| ג Gimel | גדול Gadol | great |
| ה Hey | היה Haya | happened |
| ש Shin | שם Sham | there |
Put together: נס גדול היה שם, "A great miracle happened there." The "there" is the Land of Israel, where the Maccabees rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem.
In Israel, dreidels swap the Shin for a Peh (פ), for Po, meaning "here." We explain that on why Israeli dreidels are different.
What each letter means in the game
| Letter | In the game |
|---|---|
| Nun | Nothing happens |
| Gimel | Take the whole pot |
| Hey | Take half the pot |
| Shin or Peh | Put one piece in |
The Yiddish connection
Here's the part most people don't know. The letters also line up with Yiddish words that describe the rules exactly:
| Letter | Yiddish | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Nun | nisht | nothing |
| Gimel | gants | all |
| Hey | halb | half |
| Shin | shtel arayn | put in |
That's no coincidence. Jews in German-speaking lands played a version of a European spinning-top game whose German letters stood for Nichts, Ganz, Halb and Stell ein: nothing, all, half, put in. Plenty of historians think the letters came from the game first, and the Hebrew phrase about the miracle was attached to them later. Our history of the dreidel page tells the whole story.
Other readings people have found
Jewish tradition loves finding hidden meaning in letters, and the dreidel hasn't escaped.
- 358. Every Hebrew letter has a number value. Nun is 50, Gimel 3, Hey 5 and Shin 300. They add up to 358, the same total as the Hebrew word Mashiach, Messiah.
- Four kingdoms. Some read the letters as hints to the four empires that ruled over the Jewish people in ancient times: Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.
These explanations came along well after the game did. They're still fun to share at the table.
How to tell the letters apart
If you don't read Hebrew, here's the quick version:
- Shin (ש) is the easy one. Three prongs, like a crown.
- Hey (ה) looks like a doorway with a gap in the top left corner.
- Gimel (ג) is a single stroke with a little foot kicking out at the bottom.
- Nun (נ) looks like a skinny backwards C with square corners, flat on the bottom.
Nun and Gimel are the two that beginners mix up. The bottom gives it away: Nun has a full flat base, Gimel just has a little foot.
Updated October 2026