رَدَّ reject in Arabic
رَدَّ is how you say “reject” in Arabic.
Root ر د د r-d-d. verb (form I, doubled/geminate root). radda.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of reject in Arabic
- to send back, return, or restore (something to its place, or someone to where they came from) e.g. radda-hu ilā manzili-hi, 'he sent him back to his abode'
- to reject, refuse, or repel (a gift, a claim, counterfeit money, a beggar) radda ʿalayhi al-shayʾ — refused to accept the thing from him
- to reply, answer, or respond — including refuting or objecting to what was said radda al-salām, 'he returned the greeting'; radda ʿalayhi qawla-hu, 'he rejected/refuted his statement'
- to repeat, do again e.g. repeating an oath or an act
Example sentence
وَإِن ردّها فلكون مثلهَا لَا يصلح أَن يواجه بِهِ
And if He rejects it, it is because something like it is not fit to be presented to Him.
رَدَّهَا He rejects it
Past-tense verb 'returned, rejected', 'he' form; the ending '-ha' adds 'it' — 'He rejected it'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Distinguishes two constructions: radda + ilā often carries a sense of returning something/someone respectfully (e.g. restoring a child to his mother), while radda + ʿalā often carries a sense of rejecting, refusing, or answering back (returning a greeting, refuting a statement, refusing a gift) — though this distinction is not perfectly rigid. The verb appears in the Qur'an as yawm lā maradda lahu, "a day there is no averting," describing the Day of Resurrection.
Words from the same root
- رَدٌّ a returning; rejection, refusal (the basic verbal noun)
- رِدَّةٌ a returning, an act of turning back (verbal noun variant of radda)
- مَرَدٌّ a repelling, an averting — as in the Qur'anic 'a day there is no averting'
- مَرْدُودٌ rejected, refused, sent back
- رَادٌّ one who sends back, rejects, or repels (active participle)
- ردّدهُ to repeat, reiterate (intensive form II — to do something over and over)
More example sentences
ردّه إلى طين التواضع، واغسله بعملٍ لا يراه أحد
Return it to the clay of humility, and wash it with a deed seen by no one.
رُدَّهُ return it
Command 'rudd' = 'send back!, return!'; '-hu' = 'it', so 'return it'.
فَرَدَّ غُرَبَهُ
So it repelled its oddities.
فَرَدَّ so it repelled
'fa-' = 'so'; past-tense verb, subject 'it' built in.
وتقول الحمدُ لله فتَرُدُّ الفضلَ إلى المُنعِم وتسدُّ بابَ الكِبر
And you say: 'All praise is due to Allah' and return the credit to the bestower and close the door to arrogance.
فَتَرُدُّ and return
'and you return' — 'fa' of result plus present 'you give back', subject 'you' inside. The doubled final is the root shape; the 'fa' ties returning credit to the praise just said.
وفيه قول ثالث قال مقاتل إن شئت رددته من الكبر إلى الشباب ومن الشباب إلى الصبا إلى النطفة
And there is a third opinion by Muqatil, who said that if He wills, He can return him from old age to youth, from youth to childhood, and to the sperm-drop.
رَدَدْتَهُ you could return him
This is a completed-action verb 'you returned him' carrying an attached 'him' object, the result of the condition. Inside the if-frame it means 'you could return him'. The verb holds its 'you' subject inside and the object on its end.
وَالَّذِي رَدَّتْ عَلَيَّ أُمُّ سَلَمَةِ،
And Umm Salamah answered me,
رَدَّتْ she answered
A past-tense verb carrying a small -t on its end that marks the doer as feminine 'she'. Arabic signals the subject's gender through this ending rather than a separate word, so the single verb already tells you a woman did the answering before her name is even spoken.
فَوَقَفَ وَرَدَّ عَلَيْهِ،
Then he stopped and replied to him.
وَرَدَّ and replied
The wa- joins a second action of the man, 'and replied', pairing it with the stopping just before. It is a simple action-joining 'and' linking two consecutive deeds of the same subject. The verb it carries keeps the same 'he' inside.
Common questions
- How do you say "reject" in Arabic?
- رَدَّ (radda) — literally to send something back or refuse to accept it; used for rejecting a gift, a claim, or counterfeit money.
- What is the difference between radda ilā and radda ʿalā?
- Radda ilā usually means to return something/someone respectfully, as in radda-hu ilā ummihi ('he restored him to his mother'), while radda ʿalā usually means to reply to, refute, or reject, as in radda ʿalayhi qawla-hu ('he refuted his statement') or radda al-salām ('he returned the greeting').
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).