Arabic word sheet
بَابٌ
Door, gate, entrance
- Type
- noun
- Root
- ب و ب
Meaning and usage
Door, gate, entrance
The opening by which one enters a house, a room or a town, and also the leaf of wood or other material that closes it.
طَرَقَ الْجَارُ الْبَابَ مَرَّتَيْنِ.
The neighbour knocked on the door twice.
Means of access, way in
Figuratively, what allows one to reach a thing or to obtain it.
هَذِهِ الْوَظِيفَةُ بَابٌ لِرَامِي إِلَى عَمَلٍ أَفْضَلَ.
This job is a door for Rami to better work.
Chapter, section of a book
In a book, the part that brings together what deals with one subject.
قَرَأَتْ لَيْلَى الْبَابَ الْأَوَّلَ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ.
Layla read the first chapter of the book.
Kind, category
The set of things of the same sort to which a thing belongs: “it is of that order”.
هَذَا السُّؤَالُ مِنْ بَابٍ آخَرَ.
This question is of another kind.
Plural
أَبْوَابٌ
Word family
What the root means ب و ب
Here the family starts from the noun itself, the door: the basic verb simply means to be someone’s doorkeeper. The doorkeeper, his trade and arranging a text into chapters come from it.
doorkeeper
بَوَّابٌ
the doorkeeper’s trade
بِوَابَةٌ
division into chapters
تَبْوِيبٌ
arranged by chapters
مُبَوَّبٌ
sort, manner
بَابَةٌ
Synonyms
entrance
مَدْخَلٌ
It means only the place by which one enters, never the leaf that closes it, and has neither the sense of “chapter” nor that of “category”.
chapter, section
فَصْلٌ
Close to the headword only in its sense of “chapter”: it ordinarily means a smaller subdivision within it.