Arabic vocabulary
How to say “craving” in Arabic, with pronunciation and real example sentences from OpenArabic texts.
وَنَدُرَ مِثَالُهُ أَنَّ شَهْوَةَ الْمَطْعَمِ إِنَّمَا خُلِقَتْ لاجْتِلابِ الْغِذَاءِ
A rare example of this is that the craving for food was only created to draw nourishment.
شَهْوَةَ — the craving. First half of an 'of' phrase: 'the craving for...'; the noun of 'anna' (accusative in form).
From: When Desire Exceeds Its Bounds →فَلَمَّا كَانَ هَذَا هُوَ الْغَالِبُ ذَكَرْتُ فِي هَذَا الْبَابِ ذَمَّ الْهَوَى وَالشَّهَوَاتِ مُطْلَقًا
Therefore, since this is prevalent, I mentioned in this chapter the condemnation of desires and lusts in general.
وَالشَّهَوَاتِ — and lusts. 'wa-' = 'and'; 'al-' = 'the'; genitive (plural), joined to 'desires'.
From: When Desire Exceeds Its Bounds →ولكن تصده عن الحق شهوات النفس، ووساوس الشيطان، ومجالسة الأشرار، وطول الأمل، وحب الدنيا
But desires of the self, whispers of Satan, keeping company with the wicked, long hopes, and love of the world divert it from the truth.
شَهَوَاتُ — desires of. This is the first half of 'desires of the self' and the real subject of 'divert', so it stands in the subject case despite coming after the verb. It owns the link with the noun after it and gives up its own 'the'.
From: A Sound Heart Knows →فإن القلب كالمرآة، والشهوات كالصدأ، وذكر الله كالماء الذي يجلوه
For the heart is like a mirror, and desires are like rust; remembrance of God is like water that purifies it.
وَالشَّهَوَاتِ — and desires. The connector 'and' fused to a noun that opens the next clause, 'desires'. This noun is the topic of its own comparison, and the connector simply links this clause to the mirror image before it.
From: A Sound Heart Knows →وكلما اشتغل بالشهوات، كدر قلبه، واشتبه عليه الأمر
But the more he engages in desires, the murkier his heart becomes, and things become confused for him.
بِالشَّهَوَاتِ — with the desires. A noun with the prefix 'with/in' attached and 'the' inside it, so it bundles preposition, article, and noun into one word. The prefix governs it into the genitive and marks desires as the thing he occupies himself with.
From: A Sound Heart Knows →الحمد لله الذي ساق سحاب الشهوة برعد هواء مرجوز،
Praise be to God, who drove the clouds of desire with the thunder of a turbulent wind.
الشَّهْوَةِ — of desire. The owning half of 'clouds of desire', in the genitive because it completes the possessive pairing. The ending and side-by-side order carry the 'of' with no separate word, identifying what the metaphorical clouds are made of.
From: God's Promise of New Life →فقاوم الشهوة مقاومة الفطن لا الغبي،
He resisted desire with the wisdom of the intelligent, not the ignorant.
ٱلشَّهْوَةَ — the desire. The al- makes this definite, 'the desire'. It is the object of the verb 'resisted' and carries the -a ending that marks the thing an action falls upon.
From: The Story of Prophet Joseph →تسقط الشهوة وتوجب الكسل،
It diminishes appetite and induces laziness.
الشَّهْوَةُ — appetite. The al- marks this definite, 'the appetite', and it is the doer of the verb before it. The verb showed up first and took feminine agreement to match this feminine subject that lands after it.
From: The Art of Eating Well →وإدمان الحلو يرخي الشهوة ويحمي البدن،
Continuous consumption of sweets weakens appetite and heats the body.
الشَّهْوَةَ — desire. The al- marks this definite, 'the appetite', and it is the direct object of the verb before it, in the object ending. That ending flags it as the thing being slackened, not the doer.
From: The Art of Eating Well →OpenArabic teaches words like شَهْوَةٌ through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
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