how to say “holiest” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]הַקָּדוֹשׁ בְּיוֹתֵר, הֲכִי קָדוֹשׁ

The Hebrew word for holy is קדוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /] for something grammatically masculine, and קדושה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /] for something grammatically feminine.

For example, you may have heard this in synagogue:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]אמת תורתנו הקדושה!

True is our holy Torah!

To say that something is the holiest or the most holy, you’ve got two options:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]הכי קדוש/קדושה

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]הקדוש/הקדושה ביותר

The first option, putting the word הכי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /] before the word for holy, is informal, as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]יום כיפור הוא היום הכי קדוש בשנה.

Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the year.

That second option, putting ביותר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /] after holy (with a ה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]-the before holy), is more proper, as in:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/הכי-קדוש-#.m4a” /]יום כיפור הוא היום הקדוש ביותר בשנה.

(meaning same as above)

This הכי/ביותר choice is the same for anything you’d want to describe as the most – anything ending in -est.