How to say "airplane" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningairplane
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ṭāʾiraטאארה
طائرة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
matosمَاتُوس
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ط-ي-رHebrew root
ט-ו-סṭāʾira is 'the flying one', from طار 'to fly'. Hebrew מטוס is built on טוס — a 'fly' verb Hebrew took from Aramaic, whose Biblical cousin יָטוּשׂ 'swoops' (Job 9:26) lines up with the Arabic verb طاش 'to dart about' through the regular שׂ↔ش match; طار and طاش are traditionally grouped in one Semitic flight family, though linguists debate the details.
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 everyday spoken word for a plane (and for a kite).
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Same in Cairo: ṭayyāra.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija: ṭiyyāra.
In a phrase
The plane is at the airport.
Plural
sound feminine plural -āt.