How do you say "building" in Arabic?

بِنَاء (bināʾ) — the verbal noun of banā, "to build," covering both the act of construction and its result, a structure.

What does the root ب ن ي mean?

It centres on building and construction — banā "to build," bunyān "a building" — and extends to rearing or bringing someone up, as in tabannā, "to adopt (as a son)."

بِنَاء building in Arabic

بِنَاء is how you say “building” in Arabic.

Root ب ن ي b-n-y. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar). bināʾ.

Arabic

English

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Meaning of building in Arabic

building, construction the act of erecting or framing something — a house, tent, or other structure — the opposite of demolishing it
a building, structure, edifice the concrete result of building; also used of construction in general, e.g. of ships
(grammar) indeclinability a word's fixed, invariable ending, not caused by any governing word

Example sentence

فَمَا تَرَكْتُ لَهُمْ بِنَاءً إِلَّا هَدَمْتُهُ وَلَا إِنَاءً إِلَّا أَكْفَأْتُهُ

So I left them no building that I did not demolish, nor any vessel that I did not overturn.

بِنَاءً a building

This indefinite noun is the object of 'left', the thing none of which survived, marked by the object ending. Its indefinite ending suits the sweeping 'no building at all' force under the negation. The 'except' clause after it carves out the exception.

From A Spy in the Enemy Camp

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How it is used

Bināʾ is the standard verbal noun of banā ("to build"), used for the physical construction of houses, tents, or ships. Lane also records a specialised grammatical sense, where bināʾ describes a word that keeps one fixed ending regardless of its role in the sentence, i.e. indeclinability.

Words from the same root

بَنَى to build, frame, construct (something); opposite of demolishing
بَنَّى to build much, or repeatedly; to build palaces, or raise structures high
أَبْنَى to supply someone with a house or tent, or make them build one
ابْتَنَى to have one's wife conducted to one at marriage; to consummate a marriage (from pitching the bridal tent)
تَبَنَّى to adopt someone as a son
بُنْيَان building, construction (a variant verbal noun alongside bināʾ)

Common questions

How do you say "building" in Arabic?: بِنَاء (bināʾ) — the verbal noun of banā, "to build," covering both the act of construction and its result, a structure.
What does the root ب ن ي mean?: It centres on building and construction — banā "to build," bunyān "a building" — and extends to rearing or bringing someone up, as in tabannā, "to adopt (as a son)."

Related words

Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).