Learn ArabicB2 › ضَيْعَة

ضَيْعَة

village /ˈdˤajʕa/

nounB2#4316 most common

Also: estate, hometown, hamlet

Example sentences

هَذِهِ ضَيْعَتِي.
This is my village.
أَنَا مِنْ ضَيْعَةٍ صَغِيرَةٍ فِي الشَّمَالِ.
I am from a small village in the north.
كُلَّ صَيْفٍ أَزُورُ ضَيْعَةَ جَدِّي.
Every summer I visit my grandfather's village.
يَعِيشُ أَكْثَرُ سُكَّانِ الضَّيْعَةِ عَلَى الزِّرَاعَةِ.
Most of the village's residents live off farming.
وَرِثَ الرَّجُلُ ضَيْعَةً وَاسِعَةً عَنْ أَبِيهِ فِي الرِّيفِ.
The man inherited a vast estate from his father in the countryside.
تَنَاثَرَتِ الضِّياعُ عَلَى سَفْحِ الجَبَلِ كَأَنَّهَا نُجُومٌ مُتَبَعْثِرَةٌ.
The villages were scattered across the mountainside like scattered stars.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeضَيْعَةٌضِياعٌ
Genitiveضَيْعَةٍضِياعٍ
Accusativeضَيْعَةًضِياعًا
Vocativeيَا ضَيْعَةُيَا ضِياعُ

Word family

ضَاعَto be lost, to vanish, to go to waste
ضَيَّعَto lose or squander something
إِضَاعَةloss, squandering
ضِياعvillages, estates (plural of ضَيْعَة)
ضَائِعlost, astray

Etymology

Ḍayʿa comes from the Arabic root ḍ-y-ʿ, whose core verb ḍāʿa means to be lost, wasted, or neglected. A ḍayʿa was originally a piece of land or property that required constant care, land that would fall into ruin, or be 'lost,' without an owner tending it. Over time the word settled into meaning the estate or settlement itself, and in everyday Levantine speech it now simply means 'village.' The connection to loss and neglect remains visible in related words built on the same root.

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