hamza
hamza noun: a sign used in the written Arabic language representing a glottal stop. Hamza may appear as a stand-alone letter (ء (ʔ)) or most commonly diacritically over or under other letters, e.g. أ (ʔ) (over an alif [ا]), إ (ʔ) (under an alif), ؤ (ʔ) (over a wāw [و]) or ئ (ʔ) (over a dotless yāʾ [ى]). The exact seat of hamza is governed by an orthographic rule – the "seat of hamza rule".
Noun
hamza (plural hamzas)
- A sign used in the written Arabic language representing a glottal stop. Hamza may appear as a stand-alone letter (ء (ʔ)) or most commonly diacritically over or under other letters, e.g. أ (ʔ) (over an alif [ا]), إ (ʔ) (under an alif), ؤ (ʔ) (over a wāw [و]) or ئ (ʔ) (over a dotless yāʾ [ى]). The exact seat of hamza is governed by an orthographic rule – the "seat of hamza rule".
- Written words such as Qurʼan (which in written Arabic uses a symbol know as hamza to indicate the glottal stop) are rendered with an apostrophe.2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 33
Proper noun capitalized: Hamza
Hamza (plural Hamzas)
- A male given name from Arabic.
- A surname from Arabic.
hamza meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Pashto
hamza in Hindi
- Arabic sign representing a glottal stop
- हमज़ा hamzā
hamza in Urdu
- Arabic sign representing a glottal stop
- ہَمْزَہ hamza
hamza in Punjabi
- Arabic sign representing a glottal stop
- ਹਮਜ਼ਾ hamzā, ہَمْزَہ hamzah
hamza in Pashto
- Arabic sign representing a glottal stop
- همزه hamza
More languagesFewer languages
- hamza in Arabic
- هَمْزَة hamza
- hamza in Malay
- hamzah
- hamza in Indonesian
- hamzah
- hamza in Thai
- ฮัมซะฮ์
Forms of hamza
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | hamzas |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Hamzas |
| alternative form | Hamzah |
Origin of hamza
Borrowed from Arabic هَمْزَة (hamza).
From Arabic حَمْزَة (ḥamza, literally “lion”), from the Arabic root ح م ز (ḥ m z).
Words formed from hamza
Questions about hamza
- What does hamza mean?
- Hamza means a sign used in the written Arabic language representing a glottal stop. Hamza may appear as a stand-alone letter (ء (ʔ)) or most commonly diacritically over or under other letters, e.g. أ (ʔ) (over an alif [ا]), إ (ʔ) (under an alif), ؤ (ʔ) (over a wāw [و]) or ئ (ʔ) (over a dotless yāʾ [ى]). The exact seat of hamza is governed by an orthographic rule – the "seat of hamza rule".
- What is hamza in Hindi?
- Hamza in Hindi is हमज़ा (hamzā). See Hamza meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hamza?
- Hamza can be a noun or a proper noun.
- What is the plural of hamza?
- The plural of hamza is hamzas.
Words near hamza in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hamza (page history and authors); Hamza (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-hamza.wav.
Cite this entry: “hamza.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hamza. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.