Alleluia or hallelujah?
alleluia is an interjection meaning “A liturgical or variant form of hallelujah”; hallelujah is an interjection meaning “An exclamation used in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) hallelujah is about 6.9 times as common as alleluia.
What is the difference between alleluia and hallelujah?
| alleluia | hallelujah | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun, verb | interjection, noun, verb |
| Meaning | A liturgical or variant form of hallelujah A liturgical form of hallelujah A choral composition incorporating alleluia in its text | An exclamation used in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God A general expression of gratitude or adoration A shout of “Hallelujah” |
| Example | none recorded | Hallelujah! It’s finally the weekend! |
| Forms | alleluias, alleluiaing, alleluiaed | halleluia, halleluiah, halleluja, alleluia, aleluia |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌhæl.əˈl(j)uː.jə/ /-ɪ-/ |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | 2.0 times per million words |
Sources: alleluia and hallelujah in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of alleluia and hallelujah
alleluia
- 1
A liturgical or variant form of hallelujah
- 2
A liturgical form of hallelujah
- 3
Alternative spelling of hallelujah
- 4
A choral composition incorporating alleluia in its text
- 5
The plant wood sorrel
hallelujah
- 1
An exclamation used in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God
- 2
A shout of “Hallelujah”
- 3
To cry "hallelujah" in praise
- 4
A general expression of gratitude or adoration
Hallelujah! It’s finally the weekend!
- 5
A song of praise to God; a musical composition based on the word "Hallelujah"
- 6
General praise
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, alleluia or hallelujah?
alleluia appears about once in every 3 million words; hallelujah 2.0 times per million words.
alleluia about once in every 3 million wordshallelujah 2.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search alleluia vs hallelujah?
“alleluia vs hallelujah” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“hallelujah vs alleluia”, “alleluia or hallelujah”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.