Arabic vocabulary
تَحِيَّةgreeting in Arabic
تَحِيَّة is how you say “greeting” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
Root ح ي ي (ḥ-y-y)noun (verbal noun / maṣdar of form II)Pronounced taḥiyyah
Meaning of greeting in Arabic
- greeting, salutation — the standard word for a greeting, including the Islamic legal salutation 'peace be upon you' (salām ʿalayka)
- a wish or prayer for someone's continued life and well-being — reflects the underlying sense of the verb ḥayyā, e.g. ḥayyāka llāh, 'may God preserve you alive'
Taḥiyyah is the everyday Arabic word for a greeting. It derives from the form II verb ḥayyā, whose primary sense was to wish someone continued life (ḥayyāka llāh, 'may God preserve you alive'); in legal/religious usage this greeting took the specific form of saying salām ʿalayka.
Words from the same root
- حَيِىَto live, be alive (form I verb)
- حَيَاةٌlife
- حَىٌّalive, living
- حيّاto greet; to pray for someone's life (form II, the verb taḥiyyah derives from)
- أَحْيَاto give life to, revive (form IV)
- حَيَوَانٌlife, vitality (intensive verbal noun of the same root)
Common questions
- How do you say "greeting" in Arabic?
- تَحِيَّة (taḥiyyah).
- What does the root of تَحِيَّة mean?
- It comes from the root ḥ-y-y (ح ي ي), meaning 'to live, be alive' — taḥiyyah literally began as a wish or prayer for someone's life, and came to mean 'greeting'.
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
وآخرها تحيّتهم يوم يلقونه سلام
And the final stage is their greeting of peace on the day they meet Him.
تَحِيَّتُهُمْ — their greeting. tahiyya means 'greeting'; the ending '-hum' adds 'their' — 'their greeting'.
From: Knowledge, Reverence, Obedience →وَقَول الْمُصَلِّي الله أكبر سُبْحَانَ رَبِّي الْعَظِيم سُبْحَانَ رَبِّي الْأَعْلَى سمع الله لمن حَمده رَبنَا وَلَك الْحَمد التَّحِيَّات لله
And the statement of the one praying: (Allah is the Greatest. Glory be to my Lord, the Most Great. Glory be to my Lord, the Most High. Allah listens to the one who praises Him. Our Lord, and to You belongs all praise. All greetings are for Allah.)
التَّحَايَا — the greetings. 'the greetings, salutations', nominative, opening 'the salutations [are] for God'. A broken plural here; the subject of the closing formula.
From: Small Deeds, Great Reward →
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