How to say "electricity" in Arabic
New wordMeaningelectricity
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
kahrabāʾכהרבאא
كهرباء
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
khashmalخَاشْمَال
How the two words are related
No Hebrew relative — learn it fresh.
No shared root, but twin stories: Arabic kahrabāʾ is Persian kāh-rubā, 'straw-snatcher' — amber, whose static pull snatches up straw — while Hebrew drafted חשמל from Ezekiel's mysterious glowing substance. Both languages named electricity after an ancient shining thing.
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 final hamza drops in speech.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo drops the hamza too: kahraba.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija calls electricity ḍ-ḍaw, 'the light' — mshā ḍ-ḍaw, the power is out.
In a phrase
The electricity went out.