How to say "kitchen" in Arabic
CognateMeaningkitchen
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
maṭbakhמטבח'
مطبخ
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
mitbakhمِتْبَاخ
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ط-ب-خHebrew root
ט-ב-חThe same place-noun pattern on the same root ט-ב-ח / ط-ب-خ (originally "slaughter", hence cooking — think Hebrew טבח, a cook): Hebrew מטבח and Arabic maṭbakh are structurally the identical word. Arabic just keeps the kh sound that Hebrew merged into ח.
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
From Spanish cocina; the Darija kitchen.
In a phrase
My mother is in the kitchen.
The root family
ط-ب-خט-ב-ח· cooking
מטבח and maṭbakh are the identical place-noun built on the identical root — the kitchen, assembled the same way in both languages. Hebrew's family darkened along the way: טבח is also slaughter (the biblical שר הטבחים led the royal slaughterer-cooks), while Arabic stayed at the stove. The professional pattern matches perfectly: ṭabbākh is Hebrew's טַבָּח, the cook.
- مَطْبَخ maṭbakhkitchenמִטְבָּחkitchen — the same word
- طَبَخَ ṭabakhahe cookedטָבַחhe slaughtered — the darker Hebrew turn
- طَبَّاخ ṭabbākhcook, chefטַבָּחcook
- طَبْخ ṭabkhcooking, cuisine
- طَبْخَة ṭabkhaa (cooked) dish