فَقْرِ poverty in Arabic
فَقْرِ is how you say “poverty” in Arabic.
Root ف ق ر f-q-r. noun (verbal noun / maṣdar). faqr.
Arabic
English
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Meaning of poverty in Arabic
- poverty, need, indigence the state of lacking means; the standard abstract noun opposite of wealth
- (as verbal noun of the root verb) digging, boring, or piercing e.g. boring beads for stringing, digging a well or hollow, or incising an animal's muzzle
Example sentence
وغناك قبل فقرك،
And your wealth before your poverty.
فَقْرِكَ your poverty
The attached -ka marks you as the owner, giving 'your'. Because the word for 'before' precedes it, this noun takes the possessive case, the ending Arabic uses to show a noun is being governed by a preceding word.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
فَقْر is the abstract noun for poverty/need, contrasted with فَقِير (a poor person) and غِنًى (wealth). The same root's concrete senses — digging, boring holes, and breaking the vertebrae (فَقَار) — run through related forms, and a 'calamity' is described as one that breaks a person's back (فَاقِرَة), showing how the root's physical and abstract senses of being 'broken' or 'in need' connect.
Words from the same root
- فَقِيرٌ poor, needy (person)
- اِفْتَقَرَ to become poor, to be in need
- أَفْقَرَ to make someone poor; also, to lend an animal's back for riding
- فَقَارٌ the vertebrae, the backbone
- فَاقِرَةٌ a crushing calamity (lit. one that 'breaks the back')
- فَقَرَ to dig; to bore or perforate; to incise
More example sentences
قال الأمن مع الفقر خير من الغنى مع الخوف
He said, 'Security with poverty is better than wealth with fear.'
الفَقْرِ the poverty
This is the noun governed by 'with', in the genitive because of it and made definite by 'al-', naming the poverty that the security is paired with.
فِي الْمُصِيبَاتِ الَّتِي تَصِيبُنَا كَالْفَقْرِ وَالْمَرَضِ وَالْخَوْفِ
Among the calamities that befall us are poverty, illness, and fear.
كَالْفَقْرِ like poverty
The ka- prefix means 'like/such as', opening the list of examples, and governs the definite noun after it into the genitive, 'like poverty'. The prefix itself carries the 'such as' sense with no separate word, introducing the first listed calamity.
Common questions
- How do you say "poverty" in Arabic?
- فَقْر (faqr).
- What is the difference between فَقْر and فَقِير؟
- فَقْر is the abstract noun meaning 'poverty, need' itself, while فَقِير is the noun/adjective describing a person who is poor or needy.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).