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hallelujah

hal·le·lu·jah/ˌhæl.əˈl(j)uː.jə/interjection, noun, verb

hallelujah is an interjection meaning “An exclamation used in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-A-L-L-E-L-U-J-A-H and has 4 syllables (hal·le·lu·jah), and it appears 2.0 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does hallelujah mean?

interjection

  1. 1

    An exclamation used in songs of praise or thanksgiving to God.

  2. 2

    A general expression of gratitude or adoration.

    Hallelujah! It’s finally the weekend!

noun

  1. 1

    A shout of “Hallelujah”.

  2. 2

    A song of praise to God; a musical composition based on the word "Hallelujah".

  3. 3

    General praise.

verb

  1. 1

    To cry "hallelujah" in praise.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce hallelujah?

  • US /ˌhæl.əˈl(j)uː.jə/
  • US /-ɪ-/

Hallelujah has 4 syllables, split hal·le·lu·jah in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-hallelujah.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of hallelujah

  • halleluia
  • halleluiah
  • halleluja
  • alleluia
  • aleluia
  • hallelujahs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hallelujahing participle, present
  • hallelujahed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is hallelujah?

Hallelujah appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Words people confuse with hallelujah

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

alleluia vs hallelujah1,900 G

Also written: alleluia.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Hallelujah in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchalléluia (exclamation to praise God)
Germanhalleluja (exclamation to praise God), Gott sei Dank (general exclamation of gratitude), Halleluja (shout of Hallelujah)
Portuguesealeluia (exclamation to praise God)
Spanishaleluya (exclamation to praise God), felicitación, congratulación (general praise)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does hallelujah come from?

Learned borrowing from Biblical Hebrew הַלְּלוּיָהּ (halləlūyɔh), from הַלְּלוּ (halləlū, “praise!”) + יָהּ (yɔh, “Lord, Jah”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).