لِبَاسٌ clothing in Arabic
لِبَاسٌ is how you say “clothing” in Arabic.
Root ل ب س l-b-s. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar). libās.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of clothing in Arabic
- clothing, garment, dress; the act of wearing given alongside lubs as a maṣdar of labisa, 'he put on/wore a garment'
- close association, mutual mixing or consorting explained as coming from mulābasah, 'the mixing of oneself and congregating, or being mixed and congregated'
Example sentence
ولباس الذل وإهانة الْعَدو وضيق الصَّدْر
And the clothing of humiliation, the enemy's scorn, and tightness of the chest.
وَلِبَاسُ and the clothing
wa- = 'and'; libas means 'clothing, garment' (figurative here), heading the next 'of…' word.
The English is machine-translated.
Practise this word in the app
One tap gives you the meaning, a grammar note and audio.
Add the words you don’t know. Practise them with spaced repetition.
Free. No ads. No subscription.
An account is needed in the app.
How it is used
The root's core sense is wearing or covering (labisa 'to wear'; albasa 'to clothe, cover, overspread'), but it extends tropically to confusing or obscuring an affair (labbasa/iltabasa, as in Qur'anic uses like 'do not confound truth with falsity') and to mixing or consorting closely with people (lābasa/mulābasah). Libās itself carries both the literal 'garment' sense and, via mulābasah, the sense of close mutual association.
Words from the same root
- لَبِسَ to wear, put on (a garment or weapon)
- أَلْبَسَ to clothe someone; to cover or overspread (e.g. clouds covering the sky)
- لَبَّسَ to confuse or render a matter obscure/dubious (intensive; cf. Qur'anic talbīs)
- لَابَسَ to mix with, consort, or hold close social intercourse with
- تَلَبَّسَ to clothe oneself; to become engaged or involved in an affair
- الْتَبَسَ to become confused or doubtful
- مَلْبَسٌ clothing, garment; manner or place of dress
More example sentences
وَقَدْ دَلَّ الْقُرْآنُ الْعَظِيمُ عَلَى أَنَّهُ كَانَ عَلَيْهِمَا لِبَاسٌ فِي قَوْلِهِ
The Glorious Qur'an indicates that there was clothing on them in the verse:
لِبَاسٌ a garment
The delayed subject of the 'to be' verb, the noun 'a garment', carrying the indefinite -un ending (audible tanween). It comes after the 'on them' phrase, completing 'there was a garment on them' as the thing whose existence is affirmed.
عَلَيْهِمْ مِنْهَا لِبَاسٌ يُعْرَفُونَ بِهِ مِنَ السَّكِينَةِ وَالْخُشُوعِ،
Upon them from it is a garment by which they are known for calmness and reverence.
لِبَاسٌ a garment
This is an indefinite noun, no 'the', and it is the delayed subject of the 'upon them there is' construction opened earlier. The fronting of the location phrase before it is why the subject appears here rather than at the start. It is the garment said to be on them.
Common questions
- How do you say "clothing" in Arabic?
- لِبَاسٌ (libās).
- Does ل-ب-س only mean "clothing"?
- No — beyond wearing a garment, the root covers 'covering/overspreading' (e.g. clouds covering the sky), and figuratively 'confusing or obscuring' a matter (talbīs) and 'mixing or consorting' with people (mulābasah).
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).