Learn Arabic › A2 › ضَعِيف
ضَعِيف
weak person /dˤaˈʕiːf/
nounA2#1107 most common
Also: weakling, the weak (as a class), weak hadith
Example sentences
أَنَا ضَعِيفٌ الْيَوْمَ.
I am weak today.
هَذَا الرَّجُلُ ضَعِيفٌ جِدًّا.
This man is very weak.
يَجِبُ أَنْ نُسَاعِدَ الضَّعِيفَ دَائِمًا.
We must always help the weak person.
فِي هَذَا الْمُجْتَمَعِ يَحْمِي الْقَوِيُّ الضَّعِيفَ.
In this society the strong protects the weak.
اِعْتَبَرَ الْعُلَمَاءُ هَذَا الْحَدِيثَ ضَعِيفًا لِأَنَّ فِي سَنَدِهِ رَاوِيًا مَجْهُولًا.
The scholars deemed this hadith weak because its chain of transmission contains an unknown narrator.
لَا يَنْبَغِي لِلْحَاكِمِ أَنْ يَسْتَضْعِفَ الضَّعِيفَ أَوْ يُهْمِلَ صَوْتَهُ مَهْمَا قَلَّتْ حِيلَتُهُ.
A ruler should not oppress the weak or ignore his voice, however few his options.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ضَعِيفٌ | ضُعَفَاءُ |
| Genitive | ضَعِيفٍ | ضُعَفَاءَ |
| Accusative | ضَعِيفًا | ضُعَفَاءَ |
| Vocative | يَا ضَعِيفُ | يَا ضُعَفَاءُ |
Word family
ضَعِيفَةa weak woman; weak (f.)
ضُعَفَاءweak people, the weak (pl.)
ضَعْفweakness
أَضْعَفَto weaken
اِسْتَضْعَفَto oppress, to treat as weak
Etymology
ضَعِيف comes from the triliteral root ض-ع-ف (ḍ-ʿ-f), which links two ideas: weakness and doubling. The faʿīl template turns the root into an adjective meaning weak, and Arabic also uses that adjective as a noun for a weak person. In the science of hadith the same word names a report whose chain of narrators is unreliable.
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