سَيْفٌ sword in Arabic
سَيْفٌ is how you say “sword” in Arabic.
Root س ي ف s-y-f. noun (masculine). sayf.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of sword in Arabic
- sword the well-known bladed weapon used for striking; said to have well over a thousand poetic epithets
- a sharp, cutting tongue figurative use, as in the phrase 'between his two jaws is a sword'
- a horse's tail-hair a further figurative extension noted in the lexicon
Example sentence
إذ نظر عمر إلى عمير حين أناخ على باب المسجد متوشحا بالسيف
Umar saw Umair when he arrived at the mosque's door, girded with a sword.
بِالسَّيْفِ with a sword
bi- = 'with'; al- = 'the'; sayf means 'sword' — 'with the sword'.
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
Sayf is the standard, everyday word for 'sword' in both classical and modern Arabic, and it carries the same figurative weight as English 'sword' — as in a cutting tongue being called a sword between the jaws. The same root also gives sīf, an apparently unrelated word for 'seashore', which Lane lists under the same root.
Words from the same root
- سَيَّافٌ swordsman; executioner
- سِيفٌ seashore, coast
- سَيْفَانٌ tall and slender, like a sword
- مُسَايَفَةٌ sword fight, duel
- سَائِفٌ one armed with a sword
More example sentences
فأقبل عمر حتى أخذ بحمالة سيفه في عنقه، فلببه به،
Umar approached and took hold of the strap of his sword around his neck, then grabbed him firmly with it.
سَيْفِهِ his sword
sayf means 'sword'; the ending '-hi' adds 'his' — 'his sword'.
قال فما بال السيف في عنقك؟
He said: What about the sword around your neck?
السَّيْفِ the sword
al- = 'the'; sayf means 'sword' — the 'of…' word: 'of the sword'.
قال قبحها الله من سيوف، وهل أغنت شيئا؟
He said: May Allah curse these swords! Have they ever been of any use?
سُيُوفٍ swords
suyuf means 'swords' (plural); the '-in' ending — 'of swords'.
فإن الأصولية بينهم السيف،
For theology among them is like a sword;
السَّيْفُ is a sword
This is the predicate of 'indeed' — 'a sword' — nominative (the particle bends the subject, not the predicate). It is a stark metaphor: among them, the discipline becomes a weapon they wield against each other. The definite 'the sword' makes the image vivid and general.
وَيَقُولُونَ الصِّدْقُ سَيْفُ اللَّهِ فِي الْأَرْضِ
And they say, "Truthfulness is the sword of Allah on the earth."
سَيْفُ is a sword
This noun is the predicate, the slot that says what the topic IS, and Arabic needs no 'is' word to join them; the two nouns sitting side by side already make the equation. It also opens an 'of' possessive chain with the next word, so it has dropped its own 'the' and will take its definiteness from the owner that follows.
Common questions
- How do you say "sword" in Arabic?
- سَيْف (sayf).
- What is the root of سيف and what else comes from it?
- The triliteral root س ي ف carries the sense of striking with a sword. From it come سَيَّاف (sayyāf, swordsman/executioner), سِيف (sīf, seashore), and مُسَايَفَة (musāyafah, a sword duel).
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).