How to say "brain" in Arabic
CognateMeaningbrain
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
مُخّ
mukhkhמח'
مخ
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
מוח
moakhمُوَاخ
How the two words are related
Cognate
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
م-خ-خHebrew root
מ-ו-חMukhkh and מוח go back to the same old Semitic word for brain and marrow (compare Akkadian muḫḫu), with the regular خ↔ח match — they just regularized the weak middle radical two different ways: Hebrew spells it out as a vowel-letter (מ-ו-ח), Arabic hardened it into a doubled consonant (م-خ-خ).
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
مُخّ
mukhkhמח'Same word in speech; colloquially it doubles as slang for 'smarts' — istaʿmil mukhkhak, 'use your brain'.
In a phrase
اِسْتَخْدِمْ مُخَّكَ
istakhdim mukhkhakאסתח'דם מח'ךUse your brain.