Arabic word sheet
بَيْتٌ
House, dwelling
- Type
- noun
- Root
- ب ي ت
Meaning and usage
House, dwelling
The place where one lives, however it is built: this is the most common sense today.
بَنَى الْجَارُ بَيْتًا جَدِيدًا.
The neighbour built a new house.
Tent of the nomads
Among nomads, the large tent of goat hair or wool, stretched on several poles, in which the family lives.
نَصَبَ الرَّاعِي بَيْتًا مِنَ الشَّعَرِ.
The shepherd pitched a tent of hair.
Household, family
By extension, those who live under the same roof, and the family one comes from, above all a prominent one.
سَافَرَ بَيْتُ الْجَارِ كُلُّهُ إِلَى الْقَرْيَةِ.
The neighbour’s whole household travelled to the village.
Verse of poetry
One line of a poem, complete with its two halves; the image is that of the tent, whose parts hold together in the same way.
حَفِظَ الطَّالِبُ بَيْتًا مِنَ الْقَصِيدَةِ.
The student learnt a verse of the poem.
Plural
بُيُوتٌ / أَبْيَاتٌ
Word family
What the root means ب ي ت
The basic verb is about the night: doing something by night, spending the night somewhere. The headword, the dwelling, belongs to the same family, along with spending the night, the place where one spends it and an attack made by night.
to spend the night
بَاتَ
place where one spends the night
مَبِيتٌ
spending the night
بَيْتُوتَةٌ
to attack by night
بَيَّتَ
night attack
بَيَاتٌ
little house
بُيَيْتٌ
Synonyms
house, residence
It means the whole residence with its courtyard and outbuildings, often larger, whereas the headword may mean just one roofed dwelling.
home, lodging
مَنْزِلٌ
Properly the place where one alights and settles; more formal in register, it means a lodging of several rooms.
small tent
خِبَاءٌ
Close to the headword only in its sense of “tent”: narrower, it means a smaller tent of wool or hair, on two or three poles.