Learn ArabicA1 › عالَم

عالَم

world /ˈʕaː.lam/

nounA1#184 most common

Also: universe, cosmos, realm, domain, people, folk (colloquial)

Example sentences

العالَمُ كَبيرٌ.
The world is big.
أُحِبُّ السَّفَرَ حَولَ العالَمِ.
I love traveling around the world.
هٰذا الفيلمُ مَشهورٌ في كُلِّ العالَمِ.
This film is famous all over the world.
يُواجِهُ العالَمُ اليَومَ تَحَدِّياتٍ بيئِيَّةً كَبيرَةً.
The world today faces big environmental challenges.
تَكشِفُ التِّلِسكوباتُ الحَديثَةُ عَن عَوالِمَ جَديدَةٍ بَعيدَةٍ.
Modern telescopes reveal distant new worlds.
لَم يَشهَدِ العالَمُ مُنذُ قُرونٍ تَحَوُّلاً في مَوازينِ القُوى بِهٰذِهِ السُّرعَةِ.
The world has not witnessed a shift in the balance of power at this speed for centuries.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeعالَمٌعَوالِمُ
Genitiveعالَمٍعَوالِمَ
Accusativeعالَماًعَوالِمَ
Vocativeيا عالَمُيا عَوالِمُ

Word family

عالَمِيّ (ʿālamī)global, worldwide, international
عالَمِيّة (ʿālamiyya)globalism, worldwide fame
عَوالِم (ʿawālim)worlds (plural)
عالَمِيًّا (ʿālamiyyan)globally, worldwide

Etymology

عالَم comes from the Semitic root ʿ-l-m. In Arabic the same root gives علم, 'to know', and classical grammarians linked the world to a sign by which its Creator is known. The word has close cognates in Hebrew and Aramaic, where the older sense was 'eternity' or 'long age' before it shifted toward 'world'. There is no Indo-European connection.

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

More Arabic words

دائِمpermanentكَمhow much; how manyخارِجoutside (the exterior)مالmoneyبَيِّنclear, evidentنَوْعtypeيَدhandساعَدto help