How to say "meat" in Arabic
False friendMeaningmeat
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
لَحْم
laḥmלחם
لحم
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
בשר
basarبَاسَار
How the two words are related
False friend
Sounds like a Hebrew word but means something else — handle with care.
Arabic root
ل-ح-مHebrew root
ל-ח-םTHE Semitic false friend. The shared root l-ḥ-m once meant 'staple food': Hebrew locked it onto bread (לחם), Arabic onto meat. That is why בית לחם, 'house of bread', is Bayt Laḥm, 'house of meat', in Arabic.
Related Hebrew word:לחםlekhemلِخِم
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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
لَحْمَة
laḥmaלחמהCairo: laḥma, with an -a.
In a phrase
لَحْم مَشْوِيّ
laḥm mashwīלחם משויgrilled meat
Plural
لُحُوم
luḥūmלחוםbroken plural CuCūC — like بيت→بيوت (buyūt); means meats, kinds of meat