Arabic vocabulary
نَبَتَgrow in Arabic
نَبَتَ is how you say “grow” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in a real example sentence from classical texts below.
Root ن ب ت (n-b-t)verb (form I)Pronounced nabata
Meaning of grow in Arabic
- to grow, sprout, germinate, vegetate — said of a plant, or of a leguminous or other growing thing
- (of land) to produce or give growth to plants, herbage — said of the land itself as the agent, نَبَتَتِ الأَرْضُ
- (of a girl's breast) to swell, become prominent — figurative (tropical) use, inf. n. نُبُوتٌ
This is the basic classical verb for organic growth, used of plants and, by extension, of children and other living things. It appears in the Qur'an (e.g. 23:20, with variant readings تُنْبِتُ/تَنْبُتُ; 3:32 and 71:16 with the form-IV verbal noun) and was likened by grammarians to weather-verbs such as مَطَرَتِ السَّمَاءُ 'the sky rained.'
Words from the same root
- نَبَاتٌplant, vegetation, herbage; whatever God causes to grow from the earth
- نَبْتٌa plant, herb (syn. with نَبَاتٌ)
- أَنْبَتَto make a plant grow; (of God) to cause a child to grow (form IV)
- نَبَّتَto nourish or rear a child; to plant a tree; to sow seed (form II)
- اسْتَنْبَتَto endeavour to make something grow, e.g. by seed, date-stones, or planting (form X)
- مَنْبِتٌa place where plants grow; figuratively, one's origin or lineage
- نَابِتَةٌyoung offspring newly grown up; also, inexperienced young men
- مَنْبُوتٌa plant that has been made to grow or germinate
Common questions
- How do you say "grow" in Arabic?
- نَبَتَ (nabata) — used of plants sprouting or germinating, and figuratively of a child growing.
- What does the Arabic root ن-ب-ت mean?
- It carries the sense of growing or sprouting; from it come نَبَاتٌ (plant, vegetation), أَنْبَتَ (to cause to grow), and مَنْبِتٌ (a place of growth, or figuratively one's origin).
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
إِذا علقت شروش الْمعرفَة فِي أَرض الْقلب نَبتَت فِيهِ شَجَرَة الْمحبَّة،
When the roots of knowledge take hold in the soil of the heart, the tree of love grows there.
نَبَتَتْ — it grows. Past-tense verb 'grew, sprouted'; the '-at' ending marks the feminine subject (the tree).
From: Knowledge, Reverence, Obedience →
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