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broken plural

broken plural noun: an irregular plural formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels inside the singular form, found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as Berber. An example in Arabic is مَكَاتِب (makātib, “desks”), the plural form of مَكْتَب (maktab, “desk”).

Noun

broken plural (plural broken plurals)

  1. An irregular plural formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels inside the singular form, found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as Berber. An example in Arabic is مَكَاتِب (makātib, “desks”), the plural form of مَكْتَب (maktab, “desk”).
    Antonyms:
    sound plural

broken plural meaning in Arabic

broken plural in Arabic

in Arabic and other languages, irregular plural formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels
جَمْع تَكْسِير jamʕ taksīr, جَمْع مُكَسَّر jamʕ mukassar

Antonyms of broken plural

Forms of broken plural

pluralbroken plurals

Origin of broken plural

Calque of Arabic جَمْع مُكَسَّر (jamʕ mukassar).

Questions about broken plural

What does broken plural mean?
Broken plural means an irregular plural formed by changing the pattern of consonants and vowels inside the singular form, found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as Berber. An example in Arabic is مَكَاتِب (makātib, “desks”), the plural form of مَكْتَب (maktab, “desk”).
What is broken plural in Arabic?
Broken plural in Arabic is جَمْع تَكْسِير (jamʕ taksīr), جَمْع مُكَسَّر (jamʕ mukassar). See Broken plural meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is broken plural?
Broken plural is a noun.
What is the plural of broken plural?
The plural of broken plural is broken plurals.

Words near broken plural in the dictionary

  1. broken one's word
  2. broken open
  3. broken out
  4. broken pipe
  5. broken pipes
  6. broken plural
  7. broken plurals
  8. broken power law
  9. broken ranks
  10. broken record
  11. broken records

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broken plural (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.

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