Arabic

The word “Arabic” means a major Semitic language spoken across the Middle East and North Africa, with many regional dialects and a shared formal written form. In plain terms, the Arabic language and its script, or things written using ordinary digits (1, 2, 3...) rather than Roman numerals.

“Arabic” is pronounced A-ruh-bihk (/ˈæɹəbɪk/ in IPA).

Here is “Arabic” used in a sentence: “He spent a year in Cairo learning Arabic.”

Depending on how it is used, “Arabic” can be a name and an adjective.

The word “Arabic” comes from Latin. From Latin arabicus, from Greek Arabikos, ultimately from Arab plus an adjective-forming suffix.

“Arabic” is a fairly common word in modern English.

“Arabic” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a major Semitic language spoken across the Middle East and North Africa, with many regional dialects and a shared formal written form.

Arab refers to the people and their nations, as in "Arab countries" or "the Arab world." Arabic refers to the language and its script: you speak Arabic and read Arabic writing. Arabian is mostly geographic, as in the Arabian Peninsula or Arabian horses.

Not originally. The 0-9 digits are called Arabic numerals because Europe learned the system from Arab scholars, who transmitted and refined it. The numerals themselves are generally traced to earlier Indian mathematics, which is why the system is often called Hindu-Arabic numerals.

Both descriptions are used. Arabic has many spoken regional dialects, which can differ so much that speakers from distant countries may find each other hard to follow, alongside a shared formal written form — often called Modern Standard Arabic — used in media, education, and official contexts. Learners typically choose between the standard form and one dialect.

Arabic runs from right to left. The script is cursive by design, with most letters joining their neighbors and changing shape according to their position in a word, though numerals inside Arabic text are written left to right.