Learn Arabic › B2 › عابِر
عابِر
passing, transient, fleeting /ˈʕaː.bir/
adjectiveB2#4115 most common
Also: in transit, crossing, passerby (as noun)
Example sentences
هوَ عابِرٌ في الشارعِ الآن.
He is passing through the street now.
رَأيتُ رَجُلاً عابِراً أمامَ البَيتِ.
I saw a man passing by in front of the house.
كانَ لِقاؤنا عابِراً ولَم يَدُم طَويلاً.
Our meeting was brief and didn't last long.
غَطَّت سَحابَةٌ عابِرَةٌ الشَّمسَ لِبِضعِ دَقائِق.
A passing cloud covered the sun for a few minutes.
يُواجِهُ الأَشخاصُ العابِرونَ جِنسِياً تَحَدِّياتٍ اجتِماعِيَّةً كَبيرَةً في المِنطَقَةِ.
Transgender people face major social challenges in the region.
كانَت أَفكارُهُ عابِرَةً، تَختَفي أَسرَعَ مِمّا تَظهَرُ، فَلا يَستَطيعُ الإِمساكَ بِأَيٍّ مِنها.
His thoughts were fleeting, vanishing faster than they appeared, so he couldn't hold on to any of them.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | عابِرٌ | عابِرونَ |
| Genitive | عابِرٍ | عابِرينَ |
| Accusative | عابِراً | عابِرينَ |
| Vocative | يا عابِرُ | يا عابِرونَ |
Word family
عَبَرَto cross, pass by, traverse
عُبُورcrossing, passageمَعْبَرcrossing point, ford, border crossing
عِبْرَةlesson, moral drawn from an experience
عَبَّارَةferry
Etymology
عابِر comes from the Semitic root ʿ-b-r, whose core sense is "to cross" or "to pass over." The word is the active participle of the verb عَبَرَ, so it literally means "one who is crossing" or "a crossing thing," and by extension anything brief or in transit. The same root gave Hebrew its word for "to pass" and, many scholars argue, the term "Hebrew" itself, from a word meaning "one who crossed over."
Learn Arabic the way that sticks.
Every word here is a full Polylex card with native audio and spaced repetition, so 4,080 words actually move into long-term memory.
Start free
Every word here is a full Polylex card with native audio and spaced repetition, so 4,080 words actually move into long-term memory.
Start free