Learn Arabic › B2 › يَتِيم

يَتِيم

orphan /jaˈtiːm/

nounB2#3735 most common

Also: orphaned (as adjective), fatherless child

Example sentences

هُوَ وَلَدٌ يَتِيمٌ.

He is an orphan boy.

الْيَتِيمُ يَعِيشُ مَعَ جَدَّتِهِ.

The orphan lives with his grandmother.

تَبَرَّعَتِ الْجَمْعِيَّةُ بِمَلَابِسَ لِلْأَيْتَامِ.

The charity donated clothes to the orphans.

كَفَالَةُ الْيَتِيمِ مِنْ أَعْظَمِ الْأَعْمَالِ فِي الْإِسْلَامِ.

Sponsoring an orphan is one of the greatest deeds in Islam.

نَشَأَ النَّبِيُّ مُحَمَّدٌ يَتِيمًا بَعْدَ وَفَاةِ وَالِدَيْهِ.

The Prophet Muhammad grew up an orphan after the death of his parents.

لَمْ يَكُنْ يَتْمُهُ عَائِقًا أَمَامَ طُمُوحِهِ، بَلْ كَانَ يَتِيمًا صَقَلَتْهُ الْحَيَاةُ الْقَاسِيَةُ.

His orphanhood was not an obstacle to his ambition; rather, he was an orphan whom harsh life had honed.

Declension

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	يَتِيمٌ	أَيْتَامٌ
Genitive	يَتِيمٍ	أَيْتَامٍ
Accusative	يَتِيمًا	أَيْتَامًا
Vocative	يَا يَتِيمُ	يَا أَيْتَامُ

Word family

يَتِيمَةfemale orphan

أَيْتَامorphans (plural)

يُتْمorphanhood, the state of being an orphan

تَيَتَّمَto become an orphan

مَيْتَمorphanage

Etymology

Yatīm comes from the Semitic root y-t-m, whose core sense is being alone or cut off, and in practice being a child who has lost a parent. The root is old and shared across Semitic languages, not a borrowing into Arabic. It appears frequently in the Quran, which cemented its central place in Arabic religious and everyday speech.

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