Arabic vocabulary
ذُرِّيَّةِdescendants in Arabic
ذُرِّيَّةِ is how you say “descendants” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in a real example sentence from classical texts below.
Root ذ ر ر (ḏ-r-r)noun (collective; historically linked to the verb ذَرَّ)Pronounced ḏurriyyah
Meaning of descendants in Arabic
- children, offspring, descendants — the primary sense; used of a person's progeny, male or female
- progenitors, ancestors — a less common, tropical use noted in the lexicon
- women — a further, rarer sense recorded by lexicographers
ذُرِّيَّة is grammatically singular but used with both singular and plural force, covering one's children as a whole. Lane links it to ذَرَّ in the sense 'God spread His servants upon the earth' — offspring as what is 'scattered' from a person. It takes the plurals ذُرِّيَّاتٌ and ذَرَارِىُّ, and variant forms ذِرِّيَّة and ذَرِيَّة are also recorded.
Words from the same root
- ذَرَّto sprinkle or scatter (salt, grain, a medicament); also, to spread — said of God spreading mankind over the earth, the image behind ذُرِّيَّة
- ذَرٌّtiny ant grubs, or the fine motes seen drifting in a sunbeam
- ذَرُورٌa dry powdered medicament sprinkled into the eye or onto a wound
- ذَرِيرَةٌa fragrant powder made from imported aromatic reed, used as perfume
- ذَرِّىٌّthe wavy, grain-like watering pattern on a sword blade
- مِذَرَّةٌan implement used for scattering grain
Common questions
- How do you say "descendants" in Arabic?
- ذُرِّيَّة (ḏurriyyah) — also covering 'children' or 'offspring' as a collective.
- What does the root ذ ر ر mean?
- Its core sense is 'to sprinkle, scatter' or 'to spread' — ذُرِّيَّة ('offspring') comes from the image of people being spread across the earth.
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
يا آدم، لا تجزع من قولي لك اخرج منها، فلك ولصالح ذريتك خلّفتها
O Adam, do not grieve over My saying to you: 'Get out of it,' for I created it for you and your righteous descendants.
ذُرِّيَّتِكَ — your descendants. dhurriyya means 'offspring, descendants'; the ending '-ka' adds 'your' — 'your descendants'.
From: Adam's Descent →
Related words
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