How to say "head" in Arabic
CognateMeaninghead
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
raʾsראס
رأس
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
roshرُوش
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ر-أ-سHebrew root
ר-א-שRaʾs is ראש with the alef still audible as a glottal stop. Place names pair up neatly: Ras al-ʿAyn is literally ראש העין — 'the spring's head'.
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
The hamza relaxes away: rās. The idiom ʿalā rāsī ('on my head') means 'gladly, at your service'.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
The hamza relaxes away in Cairo too: rās.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija: rās (rāsi — 'my head'; b-rāsu — 'by himself').
In a phrase
He shook his head.
Plural
broken plural CuCūC — like بيت→بيوت