Arabic vocabulary
فَمmouth in Arabic
فَم is how you say “mouth” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
Root ف م (f-m)noun (masculine; irregular declension)Pronounced fam
Meaning of mouth in Arabic
- mouth (of a human or animal) — the basic and most common sense
- teeth — metonymic (tropical) use — 'the mouth' standing for the teeth
- opening, mouth (of a river, the womb, etc.) — figurative extension, as in فَمُ النَّهْرِ 'the mouth of the river' and فَمُ الرَّحِمِ 'the mouth of the womb'
- branch (of something) — figurative use, opposed to اِسْت 'root/base'
فَم is a worn-down form of the older word فُوهٌ/فَوْهٌ (root ف و ه): the final ه was dropped and م substituted for the now-quiescent و, which is why the diminutive and plural revert to the original letters — فُوَيْهٌ and أَفْوَاهٌ, not forms built on م. It is unusually irregular, occurring in three vowelings (fam, fum, fim) and taking و/ا/ى endings when attached to a suffix other than 'my' (فُوهُ, فَاهُ, فِيهِ), alongside a simpler فَمُهُ. Beyond the literal body part, it is used figuratively for 'teeth' and for the 'mouth/opening' of a river, a womb, or similar things.
Words from the same root
- فَمٌmouth — the standard form of the word (also pronounced fum or fim)
- فَمِىٌّrelational adjective — 'of the mouth, oral'
- فُمَّdialectal variant of the conjunction ثُمَّ, 'then'
- فُمٌّgeminated (doubled-m) form of فَم, 'mouth', found in poetry
- فُمَيْمٌdiminutive of the geminated form فُمّ, 'little mouth'
Common questions
- How do you say "mouth" in Arabic?
- فَم (fam).
- What is the plural of فَم؟
- أَفْوَاه (afwāh), built on the word's original root ف و ه rather than on م.
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
وَمِنْه قَوْله تَعَالَى ٥ الْكَهْف ﴿كَبرت كلمة تخرج من أَفْوَاههم﴾ الْآيَة
And from it His, the Exalted, saying: 'Grievous is the word that comes out of their mouths.'
أَفْوَاهِهِمْ — their mouths. 'their mouths' — 'afwah' (a broken plural of 'mouth') with 'their' attached, genitive after 'min'. The '-hum' is 'their', pointing to the deniers spoken of.
From: The Declaration of Faith →قال العطار لأنك وضعت الدواء في عينه، وكان ينبغي أن تجعله في فمه
The herbalist said, 'Because you put the medicine in its eye, and you were supposed to put it in its mouth.'
فَمِهِ — its mouth. The place, 'its mouth', in the genitive after the preposition, with the owner attached as a suffix pointing back to the donkey. One word carries noun and owner.
From: Reflections on Literal Obedience →
Related words
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