Arabic vocabulary
قِلَّةٌlack in Arabic
قِلَّةٌ is how you say “lack” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in a real example sentence from classical texts below.
Root ق ل ل (q-l-l)noun (verbal noun / maṣdar)Pronounced qillah
Meaning of lack in Arabic
- paucity, fewness, or smallness in number, quantity, or amount; scantiness
- lack, want of due amount of something — often the best rendering of qillah, as in qillat mubālāh, 'lack of due care'; Lane notes it can also be equivalent to ʿadam, 'absence, non-existence'
Qillah is the abstract noun tied to the verb qalla ('to be few/little'), so it spans paucity, scantiness, and lack. In set phrases like qillat mubālāh ('lack of due care') it works much like the English word 'lack'; Lane also records it as sometimes equivalent to ʿadam, 'absence' or 'non-existence'.
Words from the same root
- قَلَّto be or become few, small, or scanty in number or amount (form I)
- قَلِيلٌfew, little, scanty; a small quantity of something
- أَقَلُّfewer, less (elative)
- قُلٌّpoverty
- أَقَلَّto become poor, to have little property (form IV)
- قَلَّلَهُto make it, or consider it, little (form II)
- مُسْتَقِلٌّindependent, self-managing, standing alone (form X active participle)
Common questions
- How do you say "lack" in Arabic?
- قِلَّةٌ (qillah).
- What is the difference between qillah and qalīl?
- Qillah (قِلَّةٌ) is the abstract noun meaning 'lack, paucity, fewness,' while qalīl (قَلِيلٌ) is the adjective 'few, little, scanty' used to describe something that has little of a thing.
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
قلّة التَّوْفِيق وَفَسَاد الرَّأْي وخفاء الْحق وَفَسَاد الْقلب
Lack of success, distortion of opinion, obscurity of truth, and corruption of the heart.
قِلَّةُ — lack. Heads an 'of…' possessive phrase: 'lack of…'; the next word says what is lacking.
From: Returning to God →
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