Learn Arabic › A1 › سَماع
سَماع
listening /saˈmaːʕ/
nounA1#552 most common
Also: hearing, audition, Sufi devotional listening
Example sentences
أُحِبُّ سَماعَ المُوسيقى.
I like listening to music.
سَماعُ الأَغاني يُسعِدُني.
Listening to songs makes me happy.
لا أَستَطيعُ التَّركيزَ أَثناءَ سَماعِ الضَّجيجِ.
I cannot concentrate while hearing the noise.
يُفَضِّلُ كَثيرٌ مِنَ الطُّلابِ سَماعَ المُحاضَراتِ مَرّةً ثانِيةً قَبلَ الامتِحانِ.
Many students prefer listening to the lectures a second time before the exam.
كانَ سَماعُ الحَديثِ مِنَ الشُّيوخِ مُباشَرةً شَرطاً أَساسِيّاً لِصِحّةِ الرِّوايةِ.
Hearing the hadith directly from the scholars was a basic condition for the soundness of the transmission.
في التَّقليدِ الصّوفِيِّ، يُعَدُّ السَّماعُ وَسيلةً لِبُلوغِ حالةٍ مِنَ الوَجدِ الرّوحِيِّ.
In the Sufi tradition, samāʿ is considered a means of reaching a state of spiritual ecstasy.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | سَماعٌ | None |
| Genitive | سَماعٍ | None |
| Accusative | سَماعاً | None |
| Vocative | يا سَماعُ | None |
Word family
سَمِعَ (samiʿa)to hear
سَمْع (samʿ)hearing, sense of hearing
مُستَمِع (mustamiʿ)listener
سَمّاعة (sammāʿa)headphone, receiver
سَميع (samīʿ)all-hearing
Etymology
سَماع is the verbal noun of سَمِعَ, 'to hear.' It traces to the Proto-Semitic root *šamaʿ, which meant to hear and often to heed. The same root gives Hebrew shamaʿ, the opening word of the Shema prayer, and Akkadian šemû. The Arabic word keeps the plain sense of hearing while also carrying scholarly and Sufi meanings.
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