How to say "hell" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaninghell
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
جَهَنَّم
jahannamג'הנם
جهنم
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
גיהנום
gehinomگِهِينُوم
How the two words are related
Loanword
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Jahannam isn't built from a native Arabic root at all — it's a loanword, ultimately from Hebrew גֵּיא הִנֹּם, the real valley south of Jerusalem that became a byword for hell. The word traveled Hebrew → Aramaic gehannā → Arabic jahannam, arriving in the Quran almost unchanged.
Related Hebrew word:גיהנוםgehinomگِهِنُوم
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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
جَهَنَّم
gahannamגהנםHard g in Cairo: gahannam.
In a phrase
نَار جَهَنَّم
nār jahannamנאר ג'הנםthe fire of hell