Learn Arabic › B2 › دُنْيا
دُنْيا
world /ˈdun.jaː/
nounB2#4337 most common
Also: this life, worldly existence, earthly life
Example sentences
هٰذِهِ الدُّنْيا جَمِيلَةٌ.
This world is beautiful.
الدُّنْيا كَبِيرَةٌ وَفِيها أُناسٌ كَثِيرونَ.
The world is big, and it has many people in it.
لا تَحْزَنْ، الدُّنْيا لَيْسَتْ نِهايَةَ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ.
Don't be sad. The world isn't the end of everything.
يَقولُ الحُكَماءُ إِنَّ الدُّنْيا دارُ فَناءٍ.
The wise say that this world is a temporary abode.
أَقْبَلَتْ عَلَيْهِ الدُّنْيا بَعْدَ سَنَواتٍ مِنَ الكَفاحِ.
Fortune turned in his favor after years of struggle.
مَنْ باعَ آخِرَتَهُ بِدُنْياهُ خَسِرَهُما مَعًا.
Whoever sells his afterlife for his worldly life loses both.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | الدُّنْيا | None |
| Genitive | الدُّنْيا | None |
| Accusative | الدُّنْيا | None |
| Vocative | يا دُنْيا | None |
Word family
دُنْيَوِيّworldly, secular
أَدْنىnearer, lower, more worldly
دانٍnear, close
تَدَنّىto become low, to decline
Etymology
دُنْيا comes from the Arabic root د ن و (d-n-w), which carries the sense of being near or low. The word takes the feminine elative pattern فُعْلى, so it originally meant something like "the nearer, lower one," set against الآخِرة, "the further, later one," which refers to the afterlife. Over time دُنْيا settled into its ordinary sense of "the world" or "this life." Arabic is a Semitic language, so no Indo-European root applies here.
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