حِين time in Arabic
حِين is how you say “time” in Arabic.
Root ح ي ن ḥ-y-n. noun (temporal noun / substantive). ḥīn.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Meaning of time in Arabic
- a period or space of time; a while vague in scope — can denote anything from a fleeting moment to an unbounded stretch of time
- a specific or appointed span of time in Qur'anic usage glossed variously as six months, a year, forty years, or seven years depending on context
- the Day of Resurrection an extended sense recorded for one Qur'anic occurrence
Example sentence
فَلَا تزَال الشَّجَرَة تؤتي أكلهَا كل حِين بإذن الله رَبِّهَا
The tree continues to yield its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord.
حِينٍ times
hin means 'a time, a while'; the '-in' ending — 'every time' (at all times).
The English is machine-translated.
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How it is used
ḥīn appears repeatedly in the Qur'an (e.g. 14:30, 37:178, 76:1) covering senses from a brief instant to time without end; its plural أَحْيَانٌ is used adverbially, as in أَحْيَانًا, 'sometimes.'
Words from the same root
- حَانَ to draw near, arrive (of a time); to die
- حَيْنٌ death, destruction; a trying affliction
- تَحَيَّنَ to watch for, wait for the right time (e.g. of a meal or of prayer)
- أَحَانَ to cause to perish, destroy; also, to remain somewhere for a time
- حَيَّنَ to appoint or fix a time for someone or something
- مُحَايَنَةٌ contracting or hiring someone for a fixed period
More example sentences
فجاءنى بعد حين فقال يا عبد الله أدّ إلى أجرى، فقلت كل ما ترى من أجرك من الإبل والبقر والغنم والرقيق
After some time, he returned to me and said: 'O Servant of Allah, return my wages to me.' I said: 'Look at everything you see; it is all from your wages: camels, cows, sheep, and servants.'
حِينٍ some time
This noun is governed by the adverb 'after', so it takes the 'of' (genitive) ending; its indefinite form leaves the span vague, 'a while'. It completes the time phrase fixing when the worker came back.
Common questions
- How do you say "time" in Arabic?
- حِين (ḥīn) — a general word for a period or span of time, vague enough to cover anything from a moment to an age.
- What is the difference between حِين and حَيْن؟
- They share the same root and consonants, but the vowels differ in meaning: حِين (ḥīn) means 'time,' while حَيْن (ḥayn) means 'death' or 'ruin' — the sense of one's appointed time running out.
Related words
Definitions summarised from Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon (E. W. Lane, 1863–1893).