Arabic vocabulary
لَيْلَةٌnight in Arabic
لَيْلَةٌ is how you say “night” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
Root ل ي ل (l-y-l)noun (feminine singulative of layl)Pronounced laylah
Meaning of night in Arabic
- a night — the basic sense: one night as a discrete unit of time, as opposed to layl, the generic word for night/darkness
- tonight — used adverbially for the current night, as in phrases like 'I saw it tonight in my sleep'
- a night's journey — the distance or stage of travel covered in the course of one night
Classical texts use laylah both for a single night and, adverbially, for 'tonight.' It also appears in set proverbial phrases, such as comparing 'tonight' to 'last night' when describing a recurring situation.
Words from the same root
- لَيْلٌnight, nighttime, in general
- لَيَالٍnights
- لَيْلِىٌّnocturnal, of the night
- لَيْلَىthe name Layla, and poetically wine
- مُلَايَلَةٌa night-by-night arrangement or hire
Common questions
- How do you say "night" in Arabic?
- لَيْلَة (laylah) for one specific night; the related لَيْل (layl) is the general word for night or darkness.
- What is the difference between layl and laylah?
- Layl (لَيْل) is the generic, mass-noun sense of night/darkness, while laylah (لَيْلَة) is the singulative — a single, countable night.
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
كل ليلة ينزل سبعون ألف ملك من السماء إلى الأرض إلى مسجد بيت المقدس
Every night, seventy thousand angels descend from the sky to the earth, to the mosque of Bayt al-Maqdis.
لَيْلَةٍ — night. layla means 'night'; the '-in' ending — 'every night'.
From: Angels at al-Aqsa →قَالَ نَعَمْ أَسْرَيْنَا لَيْلَتَنَا،
He said, "Yes, we spent the night."
لَيْلَتَنَا — our night. A noun with the pronoun '-na' (our) fused on, meaning 'our night', and it acts as the time-stretch covered by the verb, so it takes the object ending. The attached '-na' marks the whole group as the possessor. Arabic can use a bare noun like this to express 'for/through the night'.
From: A Night with the Prophet →
Related words
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