arab

UK/ˈæɹəb/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈaɹəb/

arab noun: billion (sense 1); 1,000,000,000; or with Indian digit grouping, 1,00,00,00,000.

Noun (1)

arab (plural arab or arabs)

(India, rare) billion (sense 1); 1,000,000,000; or with Indian digit grouping, 1,00,00,00,000.

Adjective capitalized: Arab

Arab (not comparable)

Of or pertaining to Arabs and their nations.
- The dispatches […] also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies. Having lectured the Arab world about democracy for years, its collusion in suppressing freedom was undeniable as protesters were met by weaponry and tear gas made in the west...2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, archived from the original on 26 Aug 2022, page 18
Synonyms:

Arabic

Noun (2) capitalized: Arab

Arab (plural Arabs)

(strictly) A member of the Semitic ethnic group native to the Arabian Peninsula.
(broadly) A person from the Middle East and North Africa, whose mother tongue is Arabic.
- This backlash also fails to take into account that Israel, for all its faults, is a multicultural society where almost half of graduating doctors today are Arabs or Druze.2023 October 29, Thomas L. Friedman, “Please, Israel, Don’t Get Lost in Hamas’s Tunnels”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2023
(uncommon) An Arabian horse.
- Having taken a very early breakfast, I mounted about eight o'clock my grey Arab, and without anything occurring worthy of note, killed the first three boars in the space of an hour, […]1887, Edward B. Baker, Sport in Bengal: and How, When, and where to Seek it, page 61
(archaic) A street Arab.
- a. 1892, Charles Spurgeon, a sermon
  You Christian people often see the little gutter children — the poor little arabs in the street — and you feel much pity for them, as well you may.
- The other day I heard you complaining of the nuisance that small ragged street-boys are to you whenever you go out. […] You wished that some one would do something to clear away these little Arabs, as you are pleased to call them, so that a fine old English gentleman—as you are pleased to think...1866, Punch, page 225
Synonyms:

Ayrab, woolly-head, sand nigger

Proper noun capitalized: Arab

Arab

A city in Marshall County, Alabama, United States.
(dated, rare) The Arabic language.
- Tarzan, who, by this time, with the assistance of Abdul, had picked up quite a smattering of Arab, questioned one of the younger men who had accompanied the sheik while the latter paid his respects to Captain Gerard.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Numa ‘El Adrea’”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 120

arab meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

arab in Hindi

an Arab: अरब arab

arab in Tamil

அராபிய நாட்டவர், அராபிய இனத்தவர், அராபியக்குதிரை, அநாதைச் சிறுவர், அராபிய, அராபியர்களுக்குரிய

arab in Marathi

अरब

arab in Urdu

Arab: عرب arab

More languagesFewer languages

arab in Bengali: যবন jobon
arab in Malayalam: അറബി
arab in Kannada: ಅರಬ್
arab in Punjabi: عربی ʻarabī
arab in Gujarati: અરબી arabī
arab in Odia: ଆରବ, ଅରବ୍, ଆରବ୍

Synonyms of arab

Forms of arab

plural	arab
plural	arabs
plural	Arabs

Origin of arab

Borrowed from Hindi अरब (arab).

Borrowed from Arabic عَرَب (ʕarab, “Arabs”) or back-formation from Arabic.

Words formed from arab

Words that rhyme with arab

scarab

Questions about arab

What does arab mean?: Arab means billion (sense 1); 1,000,000,000; or with Indian digit grouping, 1,00,00,00,000.
What is arab in Hindi?: Arab in Hindi is अरब (arab). See Arab meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is arab?: Arab can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce arab?: Arab is pronounced /ˈæɹəb/ (UK).
What is the plural of arab?: The plural of arab is arab.

Words near arab in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: arab (page history and authors); Arab (page history and authors); अरब (Hindi) (page history and authors); arab (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); arab (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); عرب (Urdu) (page history and authors); যবন (Bengali) (page history and authors); arab (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); arab (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); عربی (Punjabi) (page history and authors); અરબી (Gujarati) (page history and authors); arab (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-Arab.ogg.

Cite this entry: “arab.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arab. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.