Arabic word sheet

عَالَمٌ

World, universe

Type: noun
Root: ع ل م

Meaning and usage

World, universe

Everything that exists, taken as a whole: the earth, what surrounds it and all the beings in it. This is the broadest meaning of the word.

سَافَرَ رَامِي حَوْلَ الْعَالَمِ.

Rami travelled around the world.

Realm, kind of beings

A large group of beings or things of one kind: humans, animals, plants. The word is then followed by the name of what it gathers.

تَقْرَأُ لَيْلَى كِتَابًا عَنْ عَالَمِ الْبِحَارِ.

Layla is reading a book about the world of the seas.

Plural

عَوَالِمُ / عَالَمُونَ

Word family

What the root means ع ل م

The root carries the idea of knowing, of recognising a thing by its marks. From it come “to know”, “knowledge”, “a sign” and “a scholar”; the world itself is, in origin, that by which one comes to know.

to know

عَلِمَ

knowledge

عِلْمٌ

a sign, a mark

عَلَامَةٌ

a scholar

عَالِمٌ

Synonyms

all beings, all that exists

خَلْقٌ

Points first to the beings themselves, seen as what has been made; the headword names rather the whole they form, or one of its great realms.

the universe, existence

كَوْنٌ

More abstract: all that is, without the idea of separate realms that the headword can carry.