arak
/əˈɹæk/
arak noun: a clear, unsweetened aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink, produced and consumed primarily in the Levant. Also the alternative spelling of arrack.
Noun (1)
arak (usually uncountable, plural araks)
- A clear, unsweetened aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink, produced and consumed primarily in the Levant.
- A rite of the grape harvest in the Christian villages dotting the Lebanon mountain range[…] is the perfectly legal distillation of homemade arak. This smooth, cool, refreshing liquor, tasting of licorice with a soupçon of peppermint, remains the staple drink at Sunday lunch, an eat-till-you-drop...2005 January 25, “The return of arak”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- In Lebanon they have arak, in Turkey raki, and they even make something similar in Saudi Arabia. This is not so surprising as the Arabs were probably the first people to distil alcohol; alcohol is an Arabic word. “Arak” means “sweat” in Arabic, and describes the distillation process rather than...2015 February 6, Henry Jeffreys, “How to enjoy ouzo, even when you’re not on holiday”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Noun (2)
arak (usually uncountable, plural araks)
- A toothbrush tree (Salvadora persica).
- They use perfume freely, paint their eyes with kohl, and are constantly polishing their teeth with twigs of green arak-wood.1958-1994, Hamilton Gibb & CF Beckingham, in The Travels of Ibn Battutah, Folio Society 2012, p. 51
Proper noun capitalized: Arak
Arak
Also used as
arak is also the alternative spelling of arrack.
arak meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Arabic and Malay
arak in Hindi
- a Middle Eastern aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink
- अरक arak, अर्क ark
arak in Marathi
- a Middle Eastern aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink
- अरक arak
arak in Arabic
- a Middle Eastern aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink
- عَرَق ʕaraq
arak in Malay
- a Middle Eastern aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink
- arak
More languagesFewer languages
- arak in Persian
- عرق 'araq
- arak in Myanmar
- အရက် a.rak
Examples of arak in a sentence
- A rite of the grape harvest in the Christian villages dotting the Lebanon mountain range[…] is the perfectly legal distillation of homemade arak.2005 January 25, “The return of arak”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- In Lebanon they have arak, in Turkey raki, and they even make something similar in Saudi Arabia.2015 February 6, Henry Jeffreys, “How to enjoy ouzo, even when you’re not on holiday”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- During our time in the U.A.E., we ate with them, drank arak, watched them dance the dabke late into the evening.2026 March 16, Richard Florida, “Could This Be the End of Dubai?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Forms of arak
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | araks |
| alternative form | araq |
| alternative form | arrack |
| alternative form | rack |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Arâk |
Origin of arak
From Arabic عَرَق (ʕaraq, “sweat”), a reference to the condensate in the distillation process. Doublet of ara, raki, and rakija.
Borrowed from Arabic أَرَاك (ʔarāk).
From Persian اراک (arâk).
Words formed from arak
Questions about arak
- What does arak mean?
- Arak means a clear, unsweetened aniseed-flavoured alcoholic drink, produced and consumed primarily in the Levant.
- What is arak in Hindi?
- Arak in Hindi is अरक (arak), अर्क (ark). See Arak meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use arak in a sentence?
- A rite of the grape harvest in the Christian villages dotting the Lebanon mountain range[…] is the perfectly legal distillation of homemade arak.
- What part of speech is arak?
- Arak can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce arak?
- Arak is pronounced /əˈɹæk/.
- What is the plural of arak?
- The plural of arak is araks.
Words near arak in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: arak (page history and authors); Arak (page history and authors). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-arak.ogg.
Cite this entry: “arak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.