how to say “container” and “contents” in Hebrew

 

מְכָל, תְּכוּלָה

 

 

 
We saw that the Hebrew word for to contain is לְהָכִיל   of the root כ.ו.ל (k.w.l) meaning all.
 
Likewise, a container is a מְכָל   (erroneously yet very commonly written and pronounced as מֵכָל or מֵיכָל  ). The word also refers to the kind of container called a tank, as in:
 
יֵשׁ לִי מְכָל מָלֵא דֶּלֶק.
I have a tank (container) full of fuel.
 
 
So that’s the container, the vessel, that which is designed to hold something. The contents are a different word in Hebrew that utilizes the same root: תְּכוּלָה 
 
It’s also the word for capacity, for example:
 
תְּכוּלַת הַחֶדֶר עוֹמֶדֶת עַל מָאתַיִם נְפָשׁוֹת.
The room’s capacity stands at two hundred persons.
 
 
Now, this is content in the physical sense. For content in the intellectual sense, you’d use a different word, which I’ll introduce soon.

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