Zakef Katon
Zakef Katon is a disjunctive (pausal) cantillation accent in the Hebrew Bible whose name means "small upright." It marks a moderately strong pause within a verse, dividing a clause the way a comma or semicolon would in English.
זָקֵף קָטָן
Disjunctive (pausal) accentWhat it does in the verse
Zakef Katon is a disjunctive accent, meaning it separates rather than connects words. In the traditional four-level hierarchy of biblical accents (Emperors > Kings > Dukes > Counts), it sits in the second-level "Kings" tier, ranking just below the level-one Emperors (sof pasuk and etnachta). It is the usual, default second-level disjunctive used to divide a segment bounded by an etnachta or sof pasuk. When that second-level segment is a single word with no preceding conjunctive accent, Zakef Katon is replaced by its counterpart Zakef Gadol. As the anchor of the "Katon group," Zakef Katon is the final note of a trope phrase that may also include Mahpach (Mapach), Pashta, Munach, or Yetiv before it.
What the symbol looks like
The Zakef Katon symbol is two small vertical dots stacked above the letter, resembling a colon. It is placed above the stressed (accented) syllable of the word, so its position also tells the reader where the word's emphasis falls. As a combining diacritic it is encoded at Unicode U+0594 (HEBREW ACCENT ZAQEF QATAN). Take care not to confuse it with Zakef Gadol (U+0595), which adds a vertical line beside the two stacked dots.
Good to know
Zakef Katon is one of the most common cantillation marks in the entire Hebrew Bible, appearing throughout the Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim (Wikipedia reports roughly 6,992 occurrences in the Torah, 7,203 in Nevi'im, and 4,843 in Ketuvim, though these specific figures are Wikipedia-sourced and not independently verified against a Masoretic concordance). Its abundance stands in sharp contrast to rare marks such as Shalshelet, which occurs only four times in the whole Torah. The Katon group can repeat within a single verse, with up to four consecutive occurrences documented as the maximum, and it frequently appears in standard phrase patterns such as "(Mahpach) Pashta (Munach) Zakef-katon." The name "small upright" (zakef = upright, qatan = small) distinguishes it from the larger Zakef Gadol.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Zakef Katon trope?
Zakef Katon is a disjunctive cantillation accent in the Hebrew Bible whose name means "small upright." It signals a moderately strong pause within a verse and is one of the most common trope marks in the Torah.
What does Zakef Katon mean?
The Hebrew name זָקֵף קָטָן literally means "small upright" (zakef = upright, qatan = small). It is named in contrast to the larger Zakef Gadol, which serves the same dividing role when the segment is a single standalone word.
Is Zakef Katon a pause?
Yes. Zakef Katon is a disjunctive (pausal) accent, not a conjunctive one. It is a second-level divider in the "Kings" tier of the accent hierarchy, ranking just below the strongest pauses (sof pasuk and etnachta), so it creates a clear but not final break in the verse.
What does the Zakef Katon symbol look like and where does it go?
It is two small vertical dots stacked above the letter, resembling a colon (Unicode U+0594). It is placed above the stressed syllable of the word, which also indicates where the emphasis falls. In TropeTrainer you can see the exact glyph and hear how it is chanted.
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