Definition of goy
sometimes disparaging
: a non-Jewish person : gentile sense 1 "You were my uncle," Duddy shouted, "and I thought it was the right thing to tell you the goy was stealing from you."— Mordecai Richler In the Yiddish-speaking world of the Lower East Side, with its all-Jewish streets and all-Jewish schools, it was possible to regard the goyim as unmarriageable aliens.— Jonathan Raban Our rabbi … used to tell us not to let the goyim, those people outside the invisible wall, know if we had any differences among ourselves.— Nat Hentoff … what we Jews call Torah and goys call the Old Testament …— Robert Little
Keep scrolling for more
Test Your Vocabulary
Slippery Words Quiz—Changing with the Times
- What is an earlier meaning of nice?

Test your visual vocabulary with our 10-question challenge!
TAKE THE QUIZ
Spell words. Make bears.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridgedWords at Play
Ask the Editors
Word Games
Share goy
Time Traveler for goy
The first known use of goy was in 1841
See more words from the same year