Arabic
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A variety of the Arabic language.
"He was speaking an Arabic that they'd never heard before and could barely understand."
- 2 Ellipsis of gum arabic. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, rare
"Gum arabic is known as a lower viscosity gum, with high emulsification properties. […] these alternatives are still not totally as effective as gum arabic and when pricing and availability of arabic comes back in line, many switch back,[…]"
- 3 the Semitic language of the Arabs; spoken in a variety of dialects wordnet
- 4 An Arab. proscribed
"That's the majority of working N'Yawkers. Blacks and Hispanics outnumber the arabics."
- 5 Ellipsis of arabic numeral. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
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- 6 Ellipsis of Arabic numeral. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
"A novel writer will usually spell out Arabics from one to nine, to accord with the tone of the genre."
- 1 Related to the Arabic language. not-comparable
"an Arabic translation"
- 2 Only used in arabic acid not-comparable
"There is very little in recent literature concerning the chemistry of gum arabic other than […]. The "arabic acid" is of variable composition."
- 3 Expressed in a script that was developed in Arab lands (but is not always used in the Arabic language): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. not-comparable
"Arabic numerals"
- 4 Only used in arabic numeral not-comparable
- 5 Of, from, or pertaining to Arab countries or cultural behaviour (see also Arab as an adjective). not-comparable
"White chalk on the fascia board above the Arabic-food stall reads "Lebanon" and "Lebs rule"."
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- 6 Arab. not-comparable, proscribed
"I saw that in my workplace black co-workers had to unite with Arabic and white workers just to be able to win better wages and working conditions and certainly to be able to win a strike."
- 1 relating to or characteristic of Arabs wordnet
- 1 A major Semitic language originating from the Arabian peninsula, and now spoken natively (in various spoken dialects, all sharing a single highly conservative standardized literary form) throughout large sections of the Middle East and North Africa.
"Egyptian Arabic"
- 2 The Aramaic-derived script used to write the Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, and Uyghur languages, among others.
"Near-synonym: Arabic alphabet"
Example
More examples"The Arabic script was replaced by the Roman alphabet."
Etymology
From Latin arabicus, from Ancient Greek Ἀραβικός (Arabikós), from Ἄραψ (Áraps, “Arab”) [from Arabic عَرَب (ʕarab)] + -ικός (-ikós, adjective suffix). By surface analysis, Arab + -ic.
See gum arabic.
Related phrases
More for "arabic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.