fellah
/ˈfɛlə/
fellah noun: a peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa. Also the alternative spelling of fella.
Noun
fellah (plural fellahs or fellahin or fellaheen)
- A peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa.
- The Egyptian fellaheen, in many of their ways and customs, reproduce almost exactly their ancient prototypes. They use the same ploughs and the same shadoofs for raising water.1893 October, C[lement] B[oulton] Roylance Kent, “Life in Modern Egypt”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, volume CCLXXV, number 1954, London: Chatto & Windus, […]...
- Religion long kept the two races, Arab and Egyptian, apart, and when eventually the Christian fellaḥ in the neighbourhood of Cairo had become Mohammedan, the Mohammedan Arab had become a townsman with a townsman’s sense of superiority over the country bumpkin.1920, Archibald Sayce, “Cairene and Upper Egyptian Folk-Lore” in Folk-Lore 31 p. 176
Also used as
fellah is also the alternative spelling of fella.
Examples of fellah in a sentence
- The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses:
- Before her, seated half-crouching upon a wicker chair, was a big-breasted sphinx-faced fellah girl, with her skirt drawn up above her waist to expose some choice object of my friend's study.1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine:
- All of them were crudely caricatured scenes of life among Moslems: a schoolmaster, ruler in hand, presiding over a class of small boys, a fellah ploughing, a drunk being ordered out of a bar.1955, Paul Bowles, The Spider's House:
- Lizards, reputed to be of hgih aphrodisiac potency, used to be brought by Egyptian fellahin to Cairo[.]1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 67:
Forms of fellah
| plural | fellahs |
|---|---|
| plural | fellahin |
| plural | fellaheen |
Origin of fellah
Borrowed from Arabic فَلَّاح (fallāḥ, “peasant”), from Classical Syriac ܦܠܚܐ (“worker; peasant”). Attested since 1743.
Representing an eye dialect pronunciation of fellow.
Words formed from fellah
Words that rhyme with fellah
- stella
- columella
- Ella
- cinderella
- umbrella
- stracciatella
- a cappella
- fella
- ambarella
- citronella
- Coachella
- columnella
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- hella
- lamella
- micella
- mozzarella
- nigella
- predella
- salmonella
- Tudela
- varicella
- zooxanthella
- acanthella
- Adela
- amborella
- Bella
- brucella
- candela
- canella
- capitella
- castella
- cella
- cerebella
- chlorella
- clitella
- favela
- flabella
- flagella
- fraxinella
- Gabriella
- haustella
- klebsiella
- labella
- mistella
- moraxella
- mortadella
- novella
- paella
- panatela
- petronella
- portabella
- prunella
- quinella
- rostella
- rubella
- scutella
- selaginella
- shigella
- subumbrella
- tarantella
Questions about fellah
- What does fellah mean?
- Fellah means a peasant, farmer or agricultural laborer in the Middle East and North Africa.
- How do you use fellah in a sentence?
- The masters of the Mediterranean are fellaheen today.
- What part of speech is fellah?
- Fellah is a noun.
- How do you pronounce fellah?
- Fellah is pronounced /ˈfɛlə/.
- What is the plural of fellah?
- The plural of fellah is fellahs.
Words near fellah in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fellah (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fellah.wav.
Cite this entry: “fellah.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fellah. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.