قَوْم people in Arabic
قَوْم is how you say “people” in Arabic.
Root ق و م q-w-m. noun (collective noun). qawm.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of people in Arabic
- people, folk a collective noun, not a plural — takes collective/plural agreement
- a nation, community, or group of persons
Example sentence
أول منَازِل الْقَوْم ذِكر الله كثيرًا وتسبيحه بُكرةً وأَصِيلًا،
The first stage of the journey is frequent remembrance of God and glorifying Him morning and evening.
الْقَوْمِ the people
al- = 'the'; qawm means 'the folk, the travelers' — the 'of…' word: 'of the folk' (the seekers).
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
قَوْم functions grammatically as a collective noun — it denotes a people, tribe, or community as a body, and is a very common word throughout classical and Qur'anic Arabic.
Words from the same root
- قَامَ to stand, stand up, rise (form I)
- أَقَامَ to set up; to stay, reside; to establish (e.g. prayer) (form IV)
- إِقَامَةٌ staying, residing; the recited call that opens prayer
- قَوَّمَ to straighten, make right; to set a price on, value (form II)
- قَاوَمَ to withstand, oppose; to be equal to (form III)
- مَقَامٌ a standing-place, station
- قَائِمٌ standing; one who undertakes or manages an affair
More example sentences
وَهَذَا أبلغ فِي الإعجاز من مقاومة الْقَوْم بالجنود
And this is a greater miracle than resisting the people with armies.
الْقَوْمِ the people
The owner completing 'resisting the people', genitive, definite — the hostile folk. Whom one might have fought.
فَلَمَّا وقف الْقَوْم على رؤوسهم
When the people stood over them.
الْقَوْمُ the people
The subject of 'stood', nominative ('-u'), after its verb — the search-party. Those who halted right above the cave.
وَمَا اجْتَمَعَ قَوْمٌ فِي بَيْتٍ مِنْ بُيُوتِ اللَّهِ يَتْلُونَ كِتَابَ اللَّهِ، وَيَتَدَارَسُونَهُ فِيمَا بَيْنَهُمْ؛
No people gather in one of the houses of Allah, reciting the Book of Allah and studying it among themselves;
قَوْمٌ people
'A group, a body of people', the delayed subject in the '-u' ending, indefinite. A collective noun, it takes a singular verb though it means many: 'no group gathers...'.
وكان أعرابي يؤم قومه في البادية،
A Bedouin used to lead his people in prayer in the desert,
قَوْمَهُ his people
The -a ending marks this as the direct object of 'lead', and the attached -hu 'his' names the possessor, so 'his people' is the group led. The pronoun shows whose people.
فضحك القوم من غفلته
The people laughed at his naivety.
الْقَوْمُ the people
Definite by al' and carrying the -u subject ending, this names who laughed; it is the delayed subject of the verb before it.
فَاسْتَفَدْتُ بِالنَّظَرِ فِيهَا مِنْ مُلاحَظَةٍ سَيْرِ القَوْمِ،
So I benefited from observing the conduct of the people.
القَوْمِ the people
The owning second member of 'the conduct of the people'. It carries al- and the genitive, and it is what makes the conduct definite, a specific group's conduct. It names whose behaviour was observed.
وَإِنَّ بَاطِنَ الْقَوْمِ فَوْقَ ظَاهِرِهِمْ
And indeed, the inner state of the people is worse than their outward appearance.
الْقَوْمِ of the people
The al- makes this definite, 'the' people, and it closes the 'inner part of...' pairing as its owner. Sitting in the owned-by slot, it carries the genitive 'of' ending, locking the two words into 'the inner part of the people'.
Common questions
- How do you say "people" in Arabic?
- قَوْم (qawm).
- What is the root of قَوْم and what does it carry?
- Its root is ق و م (q-w-m), whose basic sense is 'to stand, rise, be upright' — seen in قَامَ ('he stood') and مَقَام ('a station').
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).