How to say "keyboard" in Arabic
CognateMeaningkeyboard
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
lawḥat mafātīḥלוחת מפאתיח
لوحة مفاتيح
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
mikledetمِكْلِدِت
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ل-و-حHebrew root
ל-ו-חA double cognate hiding in one phrase: lawḥa, 'board, tablet', is Hebrew לוח letter for letter — the same word behind the לוחות of Sinai. Its partner, mafātīḥ, 'keys', is the plural of miftāḥ, from ف-ت-ح 'to open' — exactly Hebrew מפתח, from פ-ת-ח. Hebrew's own מקלדת coined a fresh word instead, but a keyboard is 'a board of keys' by the same logic in both languages.
Related Hebrew word:לוחluakhلُوَاخ
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
The English loan is what Cairo says.
In a phrase
I type on the keyboard.
Plural
sound feminine plural -āt on lawḥa; mafātīḥ (itself already a plural) stays fixed.