Arabic word sheet
وَجْهٌ
Face
- Type
- noun
- Root
- و ج ه
Meaning and usage
Face
The front of a person’s head, with the eyes, nose and mouth: what one sees of the person first.
رَسَمَتْ لَيْلَى وَجْهًا ضَاحِكًا.
Layla drew a laughing face.
The front, the face of a thing
The side of a thing that meets whoever looks at it or comes to it: the front, the right side, the beginning.
طَلَى الْعَامِلُ وَجْهَ الدُّكَّانِ.
The worker painted the front of the shop.
Direction, where one is heading
The side towards which one turns or walks, and by extension the aim one is pursuing.
مَشَى الطُّلَّابُ فِي وَجْهٍ وَاحِدٍ.
The students walked in one direction.
Way, manner; respect
The way a thing is done or understood, the angle from which it is considered: “in this way”, “in every respect”.
شَرَحَ الْمُعَلِّمُ الدَّرْسَ عَلَى وَجْهٍ آخَرَ.
The teacher explained the lesson in another way.
Notable, leading figure
Said of someone who counts among the foremost of a group, the one put forward and listened to.
الْجَارُ وَجْهٌ مِنْ وُجُوهِ الْحَيِّ.
The neighbour is one of the notables of the quarter.
Plural
وُجُوهٌ / أَوْجُهٌ
Word family
What the root means و ج ه
The root turns on the face and on facing: turning towards someone or towards a place. From it come facing someone, heading for a place, direction, destination and the person of standing, the one others turn to.
to face, to confront
وَاجَهَ
to head for, to turn towards
تَوَجَّهَ
to turn towards, to take a direction
اِتَّجَهَ
direction, side
جِهَةٌ
destination, way of heading
وِجْهَةٌ
notable, worthy of regard
وَجِيهٌ
Synonyms
face, countenance
مُحَيًّا
A literary word: it means only a person’s face, and has none of the figurative senses of the headword.
way, method
طَرِيقَةٌ
Close to the headword only in its sense of “manner”: it means the procedure one follows step by step, not the angle from which a thing is looked at.