Arabic word sheet
لَيْلٌ
Night
- Type
- noun
- Root
- ل ي ل
Meaning and usage
Night
It names the time that follows the day, starting at sunset. It is said of the dark part of the twenty-four hours. The word names night in general; for one single night, Arabic uses another word of the same family.
نَامَ الطِّفْلُ طُولَ اللَّيْلِ.
The child slept all night long.
The dark of night
It names the darkness that reigns at night, as against the light of day. It is said of the dark that falls over a place.
غَطَّى اللَّيْلُ الْقَرْيَةَ.
Night covered the village.
Plural
لَيَالٍ
Word family
What the root means ل ي ل
The root names the night and its darkness. From it come the words for a single night, for what is very dark and for what belongs to the night.
a night, one night
لَيْلَةٌ
pitch-dark (of a night)
لَيْلَاءُ
deeply dark
أَلْيَلُ
of the night, nocturnal
لَيْلِيٌّ
Synonyms
darkness
ظَلَامٌ
Names the absence of light itself, at any hour, whereas the headword first of all names a time.
Opposites
daytime