How to say "world" in Arabic
CognateMeaningworld
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ʿālamעאלם
عالم
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
olamأُولَام
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ع-ل-مHebrew root
ע-ל-םHebrew עולם and Arabic ʿālam are clearly the same word, though linguists debate the route — many hold that Arabic took ʿālam from Aramaic ʿālmā. In the Bible עולם meant "eternity" (לעולם ועד); the sense "world" came later in both languages — all of time became all of space.
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo's world is id-dunya — also the weather: id-dunya ḥarr, it is hot out.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's world is d-denya.
In a phrase
the most beautiful place in the world
The root family
ع-ل-م· knowing
Arabic's great knowledge root — science, teachers, flags, and the world itself. Hebrew's ע-ל-ם is a different root meaning "to hide" (נעלם, תעלומה), so there is no straight twin; Hebrew covers this ground with י-ד-ע and ל-מ-ד instead. Yet עולם and ʿālam are clearly the same word — many linguists hold that Arabic took ʿālam from Aramaic ʿālmā, so the world sneaks in through a side door.
- عِلْم ʿilmknowledge, science
- عَلِمَ ʿalimahe knew
- مُعَلِّم muʿallimteacher
- عَالَم ʿālamworldעוֹלָםworld — likely the same word via Aramaic
- تَعْلِيم taʿlīmeducation, instruction
- عَلَم ʿalamflag, banner