How to say "college, faculty" in Arabic

Cognate

Meaningcollege, faculty

Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic

كُلِّيَّة

kulliyyaכליה

كلية

Hebrew · Modern Hebrew

מכללה

mikhlalaمِخْلَالَا

How the two words are related

Cognate

Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.

Arabic root

ك-ل-ل

Hebrew root

כ-ל-ל

Both college-words grow from the same 'all' root: Arabic kulliyya is built on kull, 'all, whole' (root ك-ل-ل), and Modern Hebrew מכללה was independently coined on the identical root כ-ל-ל — kelal, 'the general, the whole'. A college, in both languages, ends up meaning 'the place of everything': a general institution, as opposed to one specialized school. (The phonetic spelling כליה, by pure coincidence, also happens to be the Hebrew word for 'kidney' — unrelated root, just a fun echo.)

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In a phrase

طَالِب فِي الْكُلِّيَّة
ṭālib fī l-kulliyyaטאלב פי אל-כליה

a student at the college

Plural

كُلِّيَّات
kulliyyātכליאת

sound feminine plural -āt.

More words from this root

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