مَعِيشَةٌ living in Arabic
مَعِيشَةٌ is how you say “living” in Arabic.
Root ع ي ش ʿ-y-sh. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar of عَاشَ, form I). maʿīshah.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of living in Arabic
- livelihood, sustenance; that by which one lives the means of subsistence — food, drink, or earnings — rather than abstract 'life' itself
- a manner or state of life overlaps with عِيشَة; e.g. one may live a good or an evil maʿīshah
- (Qur'anic) a straitened life in maʿīshatan ḍankā (Qur'an 20:123), most commentators take this as the punishment of the grave; others as a hard life in Hellfire
Example sentence
وَطول الْهم وَالْغَم وضنك الْمَعيشَة وكسف البال
And prolonged anxiety, sorrow, harshness of living, and worry of the mind.
الْمَعِيشَةِ of living
al- = 'the'; the 'of…' word: 'of living, livelihood'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Maʿīshah is the verbal noun of ʿāsha ('to live') but functions chiefly as a concrete noun for one's livelihood or sustenance, distinguishing it from ʿaysh/ʿīshah, which lean more toward 'life' or 'a state of life' in the abstract.
Words from the same root
- عَاشَ to live (form I verb)
- عَيْشٌ life; also 'food, bread' in some dialects
- عِيشَةٌ a manner or sort of life
- مَعَاشٌ livelihood; the place or time of subsistence
- عَائِشٌ living, alive; one in a good state of life
- أَعَاشَهُ he (God) made him live (causative, form IV)
- مُتَعَيِّشٌ one scraping by on barely sufficient sustenance
More example sentences
وهو صنعة ومعيشة ينال بها الرجل السعادة والدنيا،
It is a craft and a livelihood through which a person attains happiness and worldly success.
وَمَعِيشَةٌ and a livelihood
Joined by 'wa-', this shares the predicate role — 'a livelihood / means of living'. Coordinated predicates match in case, so it keeps the nominative. So the craft is described as both a skill and a way to earn.
Common questions
- How do you say "living" in Arabic?
- مَعِيشَةٌ (maʿīshah) — it denotes livelihood or sustenance, the means and manner by which one lives, and is the verbal noun of عَاشَ 'to live'.
- What is the difference between maʿīshah and ʿaysh?
- Both come from the same root and can mean 'life' or 'livelihood', but maʿīshah leans toward the concrete means of subsistence (food, earnings), while ʿaysh more often names life itself, and can also mean food or bread in certain dialects.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).