A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: nun, gimel, hei, and shin. These letters are translated in Yiddish to a mnemonic for the rules of a gambling game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddish word nisht ("nothing"), Gimel for gants ("all"), Hei for halb ("half"), and Shin for shtel ayn (".