How to say "big, large" in Arabic
CognateMeaningbig, large
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
kabīrכביר
كبير
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
gadolگَادُول
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ك-ب-رHebrew root
כ-ב-רHebrew kabir (כביר) means 'mighty, immense' — a loftier word from the very same k-b-r root, as in הצלחה כבירה (a tremendous success). In Arabic it is simply the everyday word for big, and you already know it from Allāhu akbar, 'God is greatest'.
Related Hebrew word:כבירkabirكَابِير
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
The first vowel drops in speech: kbīr.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo keeps the vowel but turns it to i: kibīr.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
In a phrase
a big house
Plural
broken plural CiCāC — the go-to pattern for CaCīC adjectives; kibār also means 'grown-ups'