From The Hebrew Alphabet...

The Hebrew Alphabet Letter Tsade

The eighteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Hebrew is Tsade. It also has other spellings such as Sade, Sadhe, Tzadi or Tzaddik. This letter may also be called Tsadiq by some Hebrew speakers which means "righteous person". Tsade is pronounced as "tsah " dee" and has the sound of "ts" as you would hear it pronounced in "nuts".

The origin of the letter Tsade is not clear. It may have emerged from the Middle Bronze Age glyph which was based on a picture of a plant or a fish hook.

In the Modern Hebrew language, Tzadi is a representation of a voiceless alveolar affricate which is also the same as in the Yiddish language. Tzadi has a final form and is used at the end of a word. Although its shapes changes, its pronunciation does not change.

Tzadi, in gematria, is the representation of the number 90. In its final form, it represents the number 900 but it is seldom used. Instead, Tav, Tav and Kuf are used.

When Tzadi is used as an abbreviation, it stands for North.

Tzadi is one of the seven letters that is able to receive a special crown which is called a tagin.

In times past, Tsade was sometimes transliterated using the "z" sound. However, in some academic work today you may happen to see it transliterated like an "s" that has a dot underneath it. In this way, it is usually transliterated as "tz" among many American Jews, such as in the word mitzvah.

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