Arabic vocabulary
ثَلَاثthree in Arabic
ثَلَاث is how you say “three” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
Root ث ل ث (ṯ-l-ṯ)numeral (cardinal number 'three')Pronounced ṯalāṯ
Meaning of three in Arabic
- three (the cardinal number 3) — Base numeral form; the root's verbs describe the same idea in action, e.g. 'he made a group three' or 'he became the third of them.'
Used as the cardinal number three, placed before the counted noun. The root's verb forms trace the same idea of 'threeness': ثَلَثَ القَوْمَ means either 'he took a third of the people's property' or 'he became the third of the group, making them three with himself,' and the same pattern extends to other numbers (making a pair a trio, a group of twenty-nine into thirty, and so on).
Words from the same root
- ثَلَثَto take a third of (property); to be, or become, the third of a group, making it three
- ثلّثto make (something) three, or triple it; later also 'to assert the doctrine of the Trinity'
- اثلثfor a group to become three (or thirty); for a she-camel to bear her third offspring
- ثِلْثٌthe third-born offspring of a she-camel; also, watering palm trees once every three days
- ثَلَاثَةٌthree (counterpart form of the numeral)
- ثَلَاثُونَthirty
Common questions
- How do you say "three" in Arabic?
- ثَلَاث (ṯalāṯ).
- What root does ثَلَاث come from, and what does it cover?
- It comes from the root ث ل ث (ṯ-l-ṯ), which underlies the whole family of 'three'-related words — the numeral itself, verbs meaning 'to make/become three,' and words for 'a third' or 'third-born.'
Definitions synthesised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).
Example sentences
فمذهب مالك من ترك من ذلك ثلاثاً عمداً أعاد الصلاة،
According to Malik's school of thought, whoever intentionally omits three of these must repeat the prayer,
ثَلَاثًا — three. 'three', accusative — the count of what is omitted; the counted noun is understood.
From: Praise and Petition in Prayer →فيقول لهم إن ربي غضب اليوم غضباً لم يغضب قبله مثله، ولن يغضب بعده مثله، وإني كنت كذبت ثلاث كذبات، نفسي نفسي نفسي، اذهبوا إلى غيري،
He will say to them: "My Lord has become angry today with an anger like none before or after. Indeed, I told three lies. Myself, myself, myself! Go to someone else."
ثَلَاثَ — three. A number-word heading a counted phrase: it stands first and puts the thing counted after it into the form that count demands, so 'three' governs 'lies'. Arabic ties number and noun in a fixed grammatical pairing.
Related words
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