In this post, we will learn a long Arabic adjectives list, with their meaning. This post can be used as a reference you can come back to when you need to find an adjective, examples, how to use them etc. First, we will look at general adjectives and then we will look at ones used to describe humans/people or animals.
One pronunciation rule before we start: because some Arabic sounds don’t exist in English we will be using the following:
3= ع
7= ح
2= ء
Common Arabic Adjectives List
| Important example or comment | Meaning in English | Adjective in Arabic الصفة |
|---|---|---|
| Egyptian dialect: “soghayar” | small | صغير |
| big | كبير | |
| With buildings, we use عالي | tall | طويل |
| Example: I wrote a short story كتبت قصةَ قصيرةَ | short | قصير |
| soft | ناعم | |
| hard | خشن | |
| مشى محمد في الشارع الضيق Mohamed walked in the narrow street | narrow/tight | ضيق |
| “wase3” | wide | واسع |
| Egyptian dialect is the same as Arabic here | mushy | طري |
| رميت صخرة جامده | hard | جامد |
| “fed-fad” | loose | فضفاض |
| مشى أحمد في الممر المعتم Ahmed walked in the dark alley | dark | معتم / مظلم |
| دخلت الغرفة المضيئه I entered the bright room | bright | مضيء / منير |
| لبست قميصًا أزرق فاتحًا I wore a light blue shirt | light coloured | فاتح (فاتح اللون) |
| حائط أخضر غامق A dark green wall | dark (coloured) | غامق |
| shiny | لامع | |
| near | قريب | |
| The far hotel الفندق البعيد | far | بعيد |
| fast | سريع | |
| I saw a slow turtle رأيت سلحفاة بطيئه | slow | بطيء |
| Don’t confuse this with (funny) خفيف الظل / مرح | light (in weight) | خفيف |
| heavy | ثقيل | |
| هذا موضوع قديم This is an old subject | old | قديم |
| قاد الرجل السياره الجديده The man drove the new car | new | جديد |
| أحب الجو البارد I like cold weather | cold | بارد |
| أحمد يكره الجو الحار Ahmed hates the hot weather | hot | حار |
| allowed / permitted | مباح | |
| prohibited | ممنوع | |
| tiny | ضئيل | |
| complete | كامل | |
| incomplete | ناقص | |
| afloat | عائم | |
| pronounced: 3’areq | drowned | غارق |
Arabic Adjectives To Describe A Person
In this section, I will start with the most common adjectives used in the Arabic language to describe a person (some of them can be used to describe other living creatures). Some of the examples are more common in the traditional versions of modern standard Arabic (MSA) or in the Quran, these will be in Italic.
Notice that not all adjectives from English or other language would have a direct equal in Arabic. However, there would always be a way to do that. You can always use the word “dhu”
ذو;
it means “with” or a person who has [fill in the blanks]. So, you might want to say that something has a sacredness you could say:
شيء ذو قدسيه
| Important example or comment | Meaning in English | Adjective in Arabic الصفة |
|---|---|---|
| الهاتف الذكي the smart phone! | smart | ذكي |
| stupid | غبي | |
| quick witted | سريع البديهه | |
| this means someone who is observant and also quick witted | very observant | لماح |
| elderly | عجوز | |
| young | شاب | |
| هذه فتاةٌ سعيدةٌ This is a happy girl | happy | سعيد |
| delighted | مسرور | |
| الولد الحزين يقف هناك The sad boy stands there | sad | حزين |
| رأيت رجلا مكتئبًا I saw a depressed man | depressed | مكتئب |
| rich | غني | |
| poor | فقير | |
| tells the truth | honest | صادق |
| liar | كاذب | |
| a just / fair person | عادل | |
| unjust | ظالم | |
| afraid | خائف | |
| confident | واثق | |
| رجل شجاع A brave man | brave | شجاع |
| لص جبان A coward thief | coward | جبان |
| جاء الولد السخيف The silly boy came | silly | سخيف |
| فتاةُ ظريفة A cool girl | cool | ظريف |
| غرفةُ نظيفة A clean room | clean | نظيف |
| standing / upright | قائم | |
| sitting | قاعد / جالس | |
| asleep | نائم | |
| laying | مضطجع | |
| comfortable | مرتاح | |
| someone who has a clear conscience | carefree | مرتاح البال |
| uncomfortable | متضايق | |
| handsome | وسيم | |
| جميله is obviously the feminine version This adjective can also describe objects | beautiful | جميل |
| ugly | دميم / دميمه | |
| present | حاضر | |
| absent | غائب | |
| honest | شريف | |
| dishonest | حقير | |
| mean | لئيم | |
| proud | معتز | |
| shy | خجول | |
| idiot | أحمق | |
| person with a large built | ضخم الجثه | |
| angry | غاضب | |
| quiet | هاديء | |
| peaceful | مسالم | |
| hungry | جائع | |
| full | شبعان |
Reminder: take a moment to sve this link to your favourites so you can come back to it later, no one could memorise all these words in one go. Better yet, please join our Facebook page and group, also subscribe to our Youtube channel to get new videos, tips on pronunciation for beginners and intermediate learners alike. The best part? It is all free. Now let’s go back to more adjectives:
| Important example or comment | Meaning in English | Adjective in Arabic الصفة |
|---|---|---|
| optimistic | متفائل (motafa2el) | |
| pessimistic | متشائم | |
| going | قادم | |
| coming | ذاهب | |
| evil | شرير | |
| traitor / cheater | خائن | |
| loyal | وفي | |
| dreamer | حالم | |
| busy | مشغول | |
| confused | مرتبك | |
| You might also see the word ملول which is someone who is easily bored | bored (MSA) Egyptian dialect Gulf dialect | يشعر بالملل زهقان طفشان |
| could also mean agitated | revolutionary | ثائر |
| the literal translation means someone has a piercing gaze. The word “dhu” means with, someone with …. (a piercing gaze, a nice hair, etc) | insightful | ذو نظر ثاقب |
| “motafaweq” | successful | متفوق |
| thin | نحيف | |
| obese | سمين | |
| overweight | زائد الوزن | |
| as with many others, this can be a noun or an adjective | traveler | مسافر |
| In Egyptian dialect: “tayeh” تائه | lost | تائه |
| believer | مؤمن | |
| non believer / infidel | كافر | |
| Note that adding “the” to some of the following adjectives refers to Allah (God) | able | قادر |
| sinful | آثم | |
| merciful | رحيم | |
| knowing | عالم | |
| The word for illiterate is أمّي , the same spelling as the word “my mother” | ignorant | جاهل |
| very patient | حليم |
Adjectives to Describe Food
- delicious لذيذ
- spicy حار / حراق
- sour حامض
- salty مالح
- sweet مسكّر
- smoked مدخن
- matured معتق / قديم
- frozen مجفف
Arabic Feminine vs Masculine adjectives
Words and adjectives in Arabic are by default in the masculine form [m]. To change them to feminine form [f], simple add the letter “ha2” هـ to the end. So the adjective “fast for example is
سريع [m]
سريعه [f]
In Arabic, there is no neutral gender. Even objects are either masculine or feminine.
In terms of syntax and adjective rules, they are a bit complicated for the level of this lesson. It is worth mentioning thought that most of the time, the adjective follows the noun it described in being in the definite (with the) or indifenite form.
– I saw a white flower (both flower and white are indefinite) رأيت وردةَ بيضاء
– I saw the white flower رأيت الوردة البيضاء
we added the definite article “the” or (ال) in the second sentence because they are both definite.
Adjective in the Arabic sentence order
In Arabic, the order of a sentence is usually:
verb + subject + adjective or
subject + verb + adjective;
in Arabic, the adjective comes AFTER the noun. Most of the time, you start with the subject (the most important component). Some sentences don’t have a verb like statements الجمل الخبريه.
Now, over to you: have you found this post helpful? Are there any adjectives that you wanted to learn but couldn’t find here? Do you have any questions? Please post in the comments to let me know. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to get our latest videos!
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