Zakef Gadol is a cantillation

Cantillation

Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...

 mark that is commonly found in the Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 and Haftarah

Haftarah

The haftarah or haftoroh is a series of selections from the books of Nevi'im of the Hebrew Bible that is publicly read in synagogue as part of Jewish religious practice...

. It is represented by a vertical line on the left and two dots one on top of the other on the right.

The Zakef gadol is one of two versions of the Zakef trope. The other is the Zakef katan

Zakef katan

The Zakef katan , often referred to simply as "Katan," is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. The note is the anchor and final one of the Katon group, which also can include the Mapach, Pashta, Munach, or Yetiv. It is one of the most...

, part of the Katan group

Zakef katan

The Zakef katan , often referred to simply as "Katan," is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books of the Hebrew Bible. The note is the anchor and final one of the Katon group, which also can include the Mapach, Pashta, Munach, or Yetiv. It is one of the most...

. A zakef segment, which includes either a zakef gadol or katan, will either be followed by another zakef segment or the Etnachta group, usually starting with a Mercha

Mercha

Mercha is a cantillation mark commonly found in the Torah, Haftarah, and other books that are chanted.The mercha is found in several trope groups, though the melody varies from one use to the next...

 .

The Zakef gadol generally functions as a separator between two segments of a verse. Words that bear the zakef gadol are generally short with no preceding conjunctive. It is used in situations where a Zakef katon would be expected, but where there is only a single word.

The Hebrew word זָקֵף translates into English as upright. גָּד֕וֹל translates as large.

Total occurrences

Book	Number of appearances
Torah Torah Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...	524
Genesis	175
Exodus	99
Leviticus	56
Numbers Book of Numbers The Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....	125
Deuteronomy	69
Nevi'im Nevi'im Nevi'im is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. It falls between the Torah and Ketuvim .Nevi'im is traditionally divided into two parts:...	395
Ketuvim Ketuvim Ketuvim or Kəṯûḇîm in actual Biblical Hebrew is the third and final section of the Tanak , after Torah and Nevi'im . In English translations of the Hebrew Bible, this section is usually entitled "Writings" or "Hagiographa"...	312