Learn ArabicB2 › مَحْض

مَحْض

pure, sheer (something unmixed, genuine, or unadulterated) /ˈmaħdˤ/

nounB2#4094 most common

Also: unadulterated, genuine, absolute

Example sentences

هذا حليبٌ محضٌ.
This is pure milk.
هذه كذبةٌ محضةٌ.
This is a sheer lie.
وقع الحادثُ بمحض الصدفةِ.
The accident happened purely by chance.
اتخذ القرارَ بمحض إرادته.
He made the decision of his own free will.
هذا الادعاءُ محضُ افتراءٍ لا أساسَ له من الصحةِ.
This claim is sheer slander with no basis in truth.
يرى بعضُ الفلاسفةِ أنَّ المعرفةَ المحضةَ مستحيلةٌ دون تجربةٍ حسيةٍ.
Some philosophers hold that pure knowledge is impossible without sensory experience.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
NominativeمَحْضٌNone
GenitiveمَحْضٍNone
AccusativeمَحْضًاNone
VocativeNoneNone

Word family

مَحَضَto give pure milk; to be sincere and genuine with someone
مَحْضَةpure, genuine (feminine agreement form)
بِمَحْضِ الصُّدْفَةِpurely by chance (fixed phrase)
بِمَحْضِ إِرَادَتِهِof his own free will (fixed phrase)

Etymology

Maḥḍ comes from the Arabic triliteral root m-ḥ-ḍ, whose verb maḥaḍa originally meant to give someone milk straight from the udder, with no water added. From that concrete image the root broadened to cover anything unmixed or undiluted, and by extension anything sincere and without pretense. Maḥḍ itself is the masdar, or verbal noun, of that verb, and it settled into everyday use as a word for pure or sheer.

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