حَيَاة life in Arabic
حَيَاة is how you say “life” in Arabic.
Root ح ي ḥ-y. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar). ḥayāh.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of life in Arabic
- life; the state of being alive Verbal noun of حَيِىَ / حَىَّ 'he lived, was in the state of being alive' — the basic, most common sense.
- being alight, burning (of fire) Tropical extension: حَيَّتِ النَّارُ 'the fire was alive/burning' (inf. n. حَيَاةٌ), used as the opposite of a fire 'dying out', parallel to مَاتَت for people.
Example sentence
اشْتغل بِهِ فِي الْحَيَاة يكفك مَا بعد الْمَوْت
Engage with Him in life, and He will take care of what comes after death.
الْحَيَاةِ life
In the genitive after 'in', definite — this present life. When one should occupy oneself with God.
The English is machine-translated.
Practise this word in the app
One tap gives you the meaning, a grammar note and audio.
Add the words you don’t know. Practise them with spaced repetition.
Free. No ads. No subscription.
An account is needed in the app.
Words from the same root
- حَيِىَ to live, to be/become alive (form I; the more common spoken form is حَىَّ)
- أَحْيَا to give life to, quicken, revive (form IV) — used of God reviving the dead or reviving land with rain
- حَيَّا to greet/salute; to invoke long life upon someone, as in حَيَّاكَ ٱللّٰهُ 'may God preserve you alive' (form II)
- حَايَا to enliven or revive (a fire) by blowing on it (form III)
- حَيَوَانٌ an intensified verbal-noun form of 'life', set against مَوَتَانٌ ('deadness')
- حَيَآءٌ alternate verbal noun of حَيِىَ, also meaning 'life' in this root's usage
More example sentences
وَكَانَ أخص بِهِ فِي حَيَاته
And he was closest to him in his life.
حَيَاتِهِ in his life
'Life' with '-hi' (his) attached, genitive after 'in'. Throughout the Prophet's lifetime, Abu Bakr was nearest of all.
ثم قال لئن أنا حييت حتى آكل تمراتي هذه إنها لحياة طويلة
Then he said: 'If I live until I eat my dates, it will indeed be a long life!'
لَحَيَاةٌ a long life
Carries a la- prefix of emphasis ('truly') on an indefinite noun, working together with the emphatic opener earlier to drive the assertion home. The noun has no 'the', presenting 'a life' as a fresh predicate; the la- is pure intensification with no meaning of its own beyond stress.
فَمِنْ ذَلِكَ قَوْلُهُمْ الْقَتْلُ أَنْفَى لِلْقَتْلِ، مَذْكُورٌ فِي قَوْلِهِ وَلَكُمْ فِي الْقِصَاصِ حَيَاةٌ
Among them their saying: 'Killing prevents killing' is mentioned in His saying: 'And there is for you in legal retribution [saving of] life.'
حَيَاةٌ life
This is 'life', indefinite, the delayed subject of the verse's 'there is for you in retribution life'. Arabic places the location phrase first and the real subject last, so this word, in the nominative, is what exists for them. It is the thing the verse says retribution secures.
ذَلِكَ مَتَاعُ الحَياةِ الدُّنِيا
That is the enjoyment of worldly life.
الْحَيَاةِ of the life
The owning half of 'enjoyment of life', in the genitive because it completes the possessive pairing, and itself the head of a further pairing with 'worldly'. Arabic can chain such 'of' links, so this noun both completes one pairing and opens the next.
فقضى لهم حياة وقضى عليهم مماتا،
So He decreed life for them and decreed death for them,
حَيَاةً life
This noun is the object of 'decreed', shown by its accusative ending and indefinite shape, naming life as the thing ordained for them. It pairs with the 'death' decreed in the matching clause, so the two set life and death in deliberate balance.
Common questions
- How do you say "life" in Arabic?
- حَيَاة (ḥayāh).
- What root does حَيَاة come from, and what other words share it?
- It comes from the root ح ي (ḥ-y), the same root behind حَيِىَ/حَىَّ 'to live', أَحْيَا 'to give life, revive', and حَيَّا 'to greet, wish someone long life'.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).