ضَنْكٌ harshness in Arabic
ضَنْكٌ is how you say “harshness” in Arabic.
Root ض ن ك ḍ-n-k. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar), also used as an adjective. ḍank.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of harshness in Arabic
- narrowness, straitness; hardship The primary, abstract sense of the maṣdar — the state of being constricted or hard-pressed, whether of a place, of one's livelihood, or of life in general.
- narrow, strait (adjective) Used adjectivally for masculine and feminine alike, e.g. مَكَانٌ ضَنْكٌ 'a narrow place' or عَيْشٌ ضَنْكٌ 'a strait life'. Famous from the Qur'an (20:123), مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا 'a straitened life' — glossed by commentators variously as an unlawful livelihood, the punishment of the grave, or Hell itself.
Example sentence
وَطول الْهم وَالْغَم وضنك الْمَعيشَة وكسف البال
And prolonged anxiety, sorrow, harshness of living, and worry of the mind.
وَضَنْكِ and harshness
wa- = 'and'; dank means 'hardship, straitness', heading the next 'of…' word.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
ضَنْكٌ is best known from the Qur'anic phrase مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا (20:123), 'a straitened life' — commentators differ on whether it means an unlawful livelihood, hardship in this world, the punishment of the grave, or Hell. Note that the same root also covers an unrelated cluster of senses in Lane's: the common cold (ضُنَاك, مَضْنُوك) and physical compactness or robustness (ضِنَاك), alongside the core 'narrow/hard' meaning — so context decides which sense is meant.
Words from the same root
- ضَنُكَ to be narrow or strait (of a place or of one's livelihood); also, of a man, to be weak in body, judgment, and intellect
- ضَنْكٌ narrowness, hardship; narrow, strait (this headword)
- ضُنَاكٌ a coryza, a head cold or defluxion from the nose
- ضِنَاكٌ compact and firm in flesh, strongly built — said of people, camels, and trees
- ضَنِيكٌ weak in body and mind; also, a servant who labors for his bread
- مَضْنُوكٌ afflicted with a head cold (ضُنَاك)
Common questions
- How do you say "harshness" in Arabic?
- ضَنْكٌ (ḍank) — it literally denotes narrowness or straitness, extended to mean hardship, as in a hard or straitened life.
- What does مَعِيشَةً ضَنْكًا mean in Qur'an 20:123?
- "A straitened/hard life" — traditionally understood as an unlawful livelihood, worldly hardship, or (in some commentaries) the punishment of the grave or Hell.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).