How to say "ice" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningice
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
jalīdג'ליד
جليد
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
kerakhكِرَاخ
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ج-ل-دHebrew root
ג-ל-דModern Hebrew didn't invent a word for ice cream — it reached back to Aramaic גלידא, 'frozen, congealed,' built on the very same root as Arabic jalīd. The root ג-ל-ד/ج-ل-د is about hardness and covering (compare Hebrew הגליד, 'to scab over,' and Arabic جِلْد, 'skin') — ice is just water that's grown a hard skin.
Related Hebrew word:גלידהglidaگْلِيدَا
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 ice is talg — MSA's word for snow, with ث as t and hard g.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's ice, and snow, is telj.
In a phrase
ice on the window