Learn Arabic › B2 › تُراب
تُراب
dust, soil, earth /tuˈraːb/
nounB2#3821 most common
Also: dirt, ground
Example sentences
هٰذا تُرابٌ.
This is dust.
الأطفالُ يلعبون في التُّرابِ.
The children are playing in the dirt.
زرعتُ البذورَ في التُّرابِ.
I planted the seeds in the soil.
خُلِقَ الإنسانُ من تُرابٍ.
Man was created from dust.
تحوّلتِ المدينةُ القديمةُ إلى كومةٍ من التُّرابِ بعد الزلزالِ.
The old city turned into a pile of dust after the earthquake.
كتب الفيلسوفُ أنّ الإنسانَ لا يعدو أن يكون كائناً من تُرابٍ يعودُ إليه لا محالة.
The philosopher wrote that man is nothing but a creature of dust who inevitably returns to it.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | تُرابٌ | أَتْرِبَةٌ |
| Genitive | تُرابٍ | أَتْرِبَةٍ |
| Accusative | تُراباً | أَتْرِبَةً |
| Vocative | يا تُرابُ | يا أَتْرِبَةُ |
Word family
تربةsoil, land, earth (as a plot or terrain)
تِرْبcompanion or peer of the same age
تُرابيdusty, earth-colored
أتربةplural of turāb, various soils or dusts
متربةdustiness, a state of poverty
Etymology
Turāb comes from the Semitic root t-r-b, which centers on the idea of loose earth or soil. The pattern fuʿāl marks it as a mass noun for a substance, the same shape used for words like ghubār (dust in the air) or judār (a related building material sense). Akkadian has a related word, turbuʾu, for a dust storm, suggesting the root's link to windblown or loose earth is old within Semitic languages. Arabic kept the word close to its earthy, literal sense, and it became central to religious language about human origin and death.
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