Learn Arabic › A1 › جُنُون
جُنُون
madness /d͡ʒuˈnuːn/
nounA1#650 most common
Also: insanity, lunacy, craziness
Example sentences
هٰذَا جُنُون.
This is madness.
أُحِبُّ هٰذِهِ المَدِينَةَ إِلَى حَدِّ الجُنُون.
I love this city to the point of madness.
أَصَابَهُ الجُنُونُ بَعْدَ الحَادِث.
Madness struck him after the accident.
لَيْسَ بَيْنَ العَبْقَرِيَّةِ وَالجُنُونِ إِلَّا خَطٌّ رَفِيع.
Between genius and madness there is only a thin line.
في لَحْظَةِ جُنُونٍ، بَاعَ كُلَّ مَا يَمْلِك.
In a moment of madness, he sold everything he owned.
قَدِيمًا كَانَ يُنْظَرُ إِلَى الجُنُونِ بِوَصْفِهِ مَسًّا مِنَ الجِنِّ لَا مَرَضًا يُعالَج.
In the past, madness was seen as a touch of the jinn, not an illness to be treated.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | جُنُونٌ | None |
| Genitive | جُنُونٍ | None |
| Accusative | جُنُونًا | None |
| Vocative | يا جُنُونُ | None |
Word family
مَجْنُونmad, insane; madman
جُنَّto go mad, to be possessed
أَجَنَّto drive someone mad
جِنّjinn, geniesجُنُونِيّmanic, frenziedEtymology
The word comes from the Semitic root ج‑ن‑ن (j-n-n), which means to cover or conceal. The same root gives jinn (hidden spirits), janna (a garden hidden by foliage), and janīn (a fetus hidden in the womb). Arabs understood madness as the mind being veiled or covered, and as possession by the jinn. So junūn is the state, and majnūn is the one the jinn have taken.
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