أَكَل eat in Arabic
أَكَل is how you say “eat” in Arabic.
Root ا ك ل ʾ-k-l. verb (form I). akala.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of eat in Arabic
- to eat (food) the basic sense: swallowing food, properly after chewing it
- to consume, devour used tropically of fire devouring firewood, or of squandering someone's wealth or property
- to defame, backbite from the Qur'anic idiom 'to eat a brother's flesh' (49:12), meaning to speak ill of someone behind their back
- to corrode, waste away; to itch tropical uses: teeth wearing down with age, a limb decaying, or skin/head itching
Example sentence
مِثَال تولد الطَّاعَة ونموها وتزايدها كَمثل نواة غرستها فَصَارَت شَجَرَة ثمَّ أثمرت فَأكلت ثَمَرهَا وغرست نَوَاهَا،
The example of the birth, growth, and increase of obedience is like a seed you plant, which becomes a tree, then it bears fruit, and you eat its fruit and plant its seeds,
فَأَكَلْتَ and you eat
fa- = 'so, then'; past-tense verb 'ate', 'you' form (the '-ta' = you) — 'and you ate'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Beyond literal eating, the root spreads into many figurative uses in Classical and Qur'anic Arabic — a fire 'eating' wood, someone 'eating' another's wealth (squandering it), or 'eating a brother's flesh' (Qur'an 49:12), an idiom for backbiting.
Words from the same root
- أَكْلٌ eating, the act of eating
- مَأْكَلٌ eating, food
- اَكَّلَ to feed someone; to falsely accuse
- أَكِلَ to become corroded, worn away
- أَكَالٌ an itching
More example sentences
ومثل هذا كمثل من أكل طعامًا لذيذًا وهو مسموم،
And this is like someone who ate delicious food that was poisoned,
أَكَلَ he ate
A past-tense verb meaning 'ate', with 'he' built in, describing the action of the one being compared. It heads the clause explaining who that person is; the subject is encoded in the verb.
Common questions
- How do you say "eat" in Arabic?
- أَكَل (akala).
- What does the Qur'anic phrase 'eat his brother's flesh' mean?
- It is an idiom for backbiting or defaming someone behind their back, as in Qur'an 49:12.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).