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Ben 'aruba (בן ערובה) means hostage in Hebrew.

It is a masculine noun, and the Hebrew dictionary's own definitions are below.

בֶּן עֲרֻבָּה
ben 'aruba
noun · masculine
In English

hostage

The stress falls on the part in bold.

The Hebrew dictionaryWords starting with ב

The dictionary gives one meaning for Ben 'aruba.

The definitions are in Hebrew, as the dictionary writes them.

  1. 1
    אדם שנחטף ומוחזק בשבי על־מנת לסחוט כופר ממשפחתו או ממדינתו בתמורה לשחרורו.

The word Ben 'aruba is a masculine noun.

Written with vowel points
בֶּן עֲרֻבָּה
Written without vowel points
בן ערובה
Said
ben 'aruba
Root
ע־ר־ב
Plural
בְּנֵי־עֲרֻבָּה
Feminine form
בַּת־עֲרֻבָּה
Inflections
נ' בַּת־עֲרֻבָּה; ר' בְּנֵי־עֲרֻבָּה
Gematria
335

This is how Ben 'aruba is said in other languages.

English
hostage

The word Ben 'aruba comes from the root ע־ר־ב, like these words.

These words come before and after Ben 'aruba in the dictionary.

These are the questions people ask about the word Ben 'aruba.

What does Ben 'aruba (⁨בן ערובה⁩) mean in Hebrew?

Ben 'aruba (⁨בן ערובה⁩) means hostage. It is said ben 'aruba, with the stress on ba.

Is Ben 'aruba (⁨בן ערובה⁩) masculine or feminine?

The word Ben 'aruba (⁨בן ערובה⁩) is a masculine noun, and its plural is ⁨בְּנֵי־עֲרֻבָּה⁩.

The definitions, pronunciation, synonyms and translations on this page are adapted from the entry בן ערבה of the Hebrew Wiktionary, read on 1 November 2026, and are shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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