Haram

//həˈɹɑːm// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative letter-case form of haram. alt-of
  2. 2
    A sin.

    "In case of necessity it is permissible to change one's madhhab or to do a few things according to another madhhab. It is haram to cheat in order to omit a fard or commit a haram."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Forbidden by Islam: unlawful, sinful. not-comparable

    "I can’t speak about sex with my friends in Arabic. The words are too heavy and culturally loaded. It all sounds haram (sinful)."

Synonyms

All synonyms
mubahnonhalalnonhalalsinunorthodox

Example

More examples

"As Commander-in-Chief, I’ve seen how the ideology that leads Boko Haram to kidnap schoolgirls, and leads ISIL to enslave and rape women is the same ideology that leads to instability, and violence, and terrorism."

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic حَرَام (ḥarām). Doublet of harem and herem.

Related phrases

Boko Haramharam police

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.