Learn Arabic › A2 › وَصَف
وَصَف
to describe /ˈwa.sˤa.fa/
verbA2#1336 most common
Also: to characterize, to prescribe (medicine), to portray
Example sentences
وَصَفَ البيتَ.
He described the house.
وَصَفَ لي الطبيبُ دواءً.
The doctor prescribed me a medicine.
كيف وَصَفْتَ الحادثَ للشرطة؟
How did you describe the accident to the police?
وَصَفَتِ الصحيفةُ الاجتماعَ بأنه فاشلٌ.
The newspaper described the meeting as a failure.
لم يستطع الشاهدُ أن يَصِفَ وجهَ السارقِ بدقّة.
The witness could not describe the thief's face precisely.
وَصَفَهُ النقّادُ بأنه أعظمُ روائيٍّ في جيلِه، لكنّه رفض هذا اللقبَ بتواضعٍ.
The critics described him as the greatest novelist of his generation, but he modestly rejected the title.
Conjugation
| Present Active | Simple Past Active | Simple Future Active | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | أَصِفُ | وَصَفْتُ | سَأَصِفُ |
| 2sg | تَصِفُ | وَصَفْتَ | سَتَصِفُ |
| 3sg | يَصِفُ | وَصَفَ | سَيَصِفُ |
| 1pl | نَصِفُ | وَصَفْنَا | سَنَصِفُ |
| 2pl | تَصِفُونَ | وَصَفْتُمْ | سَتَصِفُونَ |
| 3pl | يَصِفُونَ | وَصَفُوا | سَيَصِفُونَ |
Word family
وَصْفdescriptionصِفَةquality, attribute, adjective
وَصْفَةprescription, recipe
مُوَاصَفَةspecification
مَوْصُوفdescribed, qualified
Etymology
The verb comes from the Semitic triconsonantal root w-ṣ-f, which carries the idea of setting out the qualities of a thing. It is an assimilated verb: the initial wāw drops in the present tense, giving yaṣifu. The same root produced the nouns waṣf (description) and ṣifa, the latter also the Arabic grammatical term for an adjective.
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