Hallelujah (/?hæl?'lu?j?/ HAL-i-LOO-y?) is an English interjection. It is a transliteration of the Hebrew phrase ??????? ???? (Modern Hebrew halluyah, Tiberian hal?luyah), which is composed of two elements: ??????? (second-person imperative masculine plural form of the Hebrew verb hillel: an exhortation to "praise" addressed to several people[1]) and ???? (the name of God Yah).[2][3][4] The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christian Book of Revelation.[5]

The phrase is used in Judaism as part of the Hallel prayers, and in Christian prayer,[5] where since the earliest times[6] it is used in various ways in liturgies,[7] especially those of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church,[8] both of which use the form "alleluia" which is based on the alternative Greek transliteration.