Arabic vocabulary
دَاءdisease in Arabic
دَاء is how you say “disease” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
Root د و أ (d-w-ʾ)noun (verbal noun / maṣdar)Pronounced dāʾ
Meaning of disease in Arabic
- disease, disorder, distemper, sickness, illness, malady — physical; can be external or internal to the body
- vice, defect, fault, blemish — moral sense, e.g. dāʾ ash-shuḥḥ, 'the vice of avarice,' said to be the gravest of vices
Dāʾ covers both a literal bodily ailment and a figurative moral failing, so it can describe a physical illness or a character flaw like avarice. It also occurs in fixed phrases naming the 'disease' proverbially associated with something, e.g. dāʾ adh-dhiʾb for hunger, where the sense shifts entirely to the figurative.
Words from the same root
- دَآءَverb (form I): to become diseased, disordered, sick
- أَدَآءَverb (form IV): to become diseased; also transitive, to afflict (someone) with disease
- أَدْوَآءٌplural of dāʾ, 'diseases/vices' — noted as the sole final-hamza singular with a final-hamza plural
- دَيِّئٌadjective: diseased, sick (epithet applied to a person)
- أَدْوَأُcomparative: more/most diseased, i.e. worse (of a vice or fault)
- مُدِىْءٌadjective: diseased, sick (synonym of dayyiʾ)
Common questions
- How do you say "disease" in Arabic?
- دَاء (dāʾ).
- Does دَاء only mean a physical illness?
- No — it also means a moral vice or fault, as in dāʾ ash-shuḥḥ, 'the vice of avarice.'
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
فقد استخرج منك داء العجب، وألبست خلعة العبودية
For it extracted the disease of conceit from you, and clothed you in the garment of servitude.
دَاءَ — disease. da means 'disease, ailment'; the object of 'extracted' (object form), heading an 'of…' phrase with the next word.
From: Adam's Descent →عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أصل كل داء البردة
The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: The root of every illness is fullness.
دَاءٍ — illness. This is the owner at the end of the chain, 'illness', in the genitive and left indefinite so it means any illness. The whole phrase reads 'the root of every illness'.
From: The One-Third Rule →
Related words
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