Arabic

[ ar-uh-bik ]

adjective
  1. of, belonging to, or derived from the language or literature of the Arabs.

  2. noting, pertaining to, or derived from an alphabetic script in which etymologically short vowels are not normally represented, used for the writing of Arabic probably since about the fourth century a.d., and adopted with modifications by Persian, Urdu, and many other languages.

  1. of or relating to Arabs.

  2. of or relating to Arabia or its inhabitants; Arabian.

noun
  1. a Semitic language that developed out of the language of the Arabians of the time of Muhammad, now spoken in countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Abbreviations: Ar, Ar.

  2. the standard literary and classical language as established by the Quran.

Origin of Arabic

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English arabik, from Latin Arabicus “Arabian,” equivalent to Arab(ia) + -icus adjective suffix; see -ic

Other words from Arabic

  • an·ti-Ar·a·bic, adjective
  • non-Ar·a·bic, adjective
  • pro-Ar·a·bic, adjective

Words Nearby Arabic

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How to use Arabic in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for Arabic

Arabic

/ (ˈærəbɪk) /


noun
  1. the language of the Arabs, spoken in a variety of dialects; the official language of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, the Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. It is estimated to be the native language of some 75 million people throughout the world. It belongs to the Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages and has its own alphabet, which has been borrowed by certain other languages such as Urdu

adjective
  1. denoting or relating to this language, any of the peoples that speak it, or the countries in which it is spoken

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