Learn ArabicB2 › صَحْن

صَحْن

plate /ˈsˤaħn/

nounB2#3090 most common

Also: dish, bowl, courtyard

Example sentences

هذا صَحْنٌ كَبِيرٌ.
This is a big plate.
ضَعِي الطَّعامَ في الصَّحْنِ.
Put the food on the plate.
غَسَلْتُ الصُّحُونَ بَعْدَ العَشاءِ.
I washed the dishes after dinner.
كانَ صَحْنُ الدّارِ مَفْروشًا بِالرُّخامِ.
The courtyard of the house was paved with marble.
امْتَلَأَ صَحْنُ الحَساءِ بِبُخارٍ يَتَصاعَدُ في الهَواءِ البارِدِ.
The bowl of soup filled with steam rising into the cold air.
تَحَلَّقَ المُصَلّونَ في صَحْنِ المَسْجِدِ يَنْتَظِرونَ أَذانَ الفَجْرِ.
The worshippers gathered in the mosque's courtyard, waiting for the dawn call to prayer.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeصَحْنٌصُحُونٌ
Genitiveصَحْنٍصُحُونٍ
Accusativeصَحْناًصُحُوناً
Vocativeصَحْنُصُحُونُ

Word family

صَحْنplate, dish (also courtyard)
صُحُونplates, dishes (plural)
صُحَيْنsmall dish or saucer
صَحْن الدارcourtyard of a house
صَحْن الجامعmosque courtyard

Etymology

صَحْن comes from a Semitic root tied to shallow, open vessels. Many linguists trace it to Aramaic ṣaḥnā, meaning a bowl or dish, which Arabic absorbed in pre-Islamic or early Islamic times. From the dish sense, Arabic extended the word to any open, level space, which gave rise to the architectural meaning of a house or mosque courtyard. The word later moved outward from Arabic into Ottoman Turkish as sahan, a shallow serving pan.

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