Learn Arabic › B2 › أَدْنَى
أَدْنَى
minimum /ˈʔadnaː/
nounB2#3399 most common
Also: lowest, nearest, slightest
Example sentences
هذا هو الحد الأدنى للسعر.
This is the minimum price.
ليس لدي أدنى فكرة عن الجواب.
I don't have the slightest idea about the answer.
يجب أن نحافظ على الحد الأدنى من الاحترام المتبادل.
We must maintain a minimum of mutual respect.
تقع منطقة الشرق الأدنى بين أوروبا وآسيا.
The Near East region lies between Europe and Asia.
لم يُبدِ الوزير أدنى استعداد للتفاوض مع المعارضة.
The minister showed not the slightest willingness to negotiate with the opposition.
أقر البرلمان تشريعا يرفع الحد الأدنى للأجور تدريجيا على مدى السنوات الثلاث المقبلة.
Parliament passed legislation gradually raising the minimum wage over the next three years.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | أدنى | أدنَوْن |
| Genitive | أدنى | أدنَيْن |
| Accusative | أدنى | أدنَيْن |
| Vocative | يا أدنى | يا أدنَوْن |
Word family
دناto draw near, approach
الدنياthis world, worldly life
دنيءbase, vile, low
تدنّىto decline, sink to a lower level
دناءةbaseness, meanness
Etymology
Adnā comes from the triliteral root د-ن-و (d-n-w), which carries the sense of nearness or closeness. The word itself is the elative form, built on the أفعل pattern that Arabic uses for comparatives and superlatives, so it literally means nearer or nearest. Over time the sense of nearness shifted toward lowness, since what is closest to the ground counts as lowest, and this gave adnā its common modern meaning of minimum or least.
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