How to say "decade; also: contract" in Arabic
CognateMeaningdecade; also: contract
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ʿaqdעקד
عقد
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
asorأَسُور
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ع-ق-دHebrew root
ע-ק-דSame root as Hebrew עקד, 'to bind' — most famous from עֲקֵדַת יִצְחָק, the Binding of Isaac. Arabic kept the literal sense in 'to tie a knot' and 'a contract' (a binding agreement), and extended it to 'a decade' — ten years tied together like knots counted on a cord.
Related Hebrew word:עקדakadأَكَاد
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
Urban Levantine turns the internal ق into a glottal stop: ʿaʾd.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Same in Cairo: ʿaʾd.
In a phrase
over a whole decade
Plural
broken plural CuCūC — also the plural of 'contracts'.