ما

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ما

/maː/

Where it comes from

Cognate with Hebrew מָה (ma) and Ugaritic 𐎎𐎅 (mh).

pronoun مَا · mā

interrogative what?
Similar: أَيّ شَيْءٍ, أَيْشٍ, مَاذَا
indefinite some, a certain إِنَّ ٱللّٰهَ لَا يَسْتَحْيِي أَنْ يَضْرِبَ مَثَلًا مَا بَعُوضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا
relative that which, what اِقْرَأْ مَا كَتَبْتُ.
whichever; whatever مَا تَفْعَلْ تُجَازَ عَلَيْهِ
Similar: أَيَّمَا, مَهْمَا

particle مَا · mā

not; never See also: لَا, لَمْ, لَنْ, and لَيْسَ
Similar: إِنْ

conjunction مَا · mā

as long as فَمَا ٱسْتَقَامُوا لَكُمْ فَٱسْتَقِيمُوا لَهُمْ
A subordinating conjunction following particles or genitival nouns in conditional statements, known as مَا الزَّائِدَة (mā z-zāʔida), 'superfluous mā' […] وَلَا يَأْبَ ٱلشُّهَدَاءُ إِذَا مَا دُعُوا […]
loosely translates to that; introduces a verbal complement to a preposition, standing in place of the definite verbal noun وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْذِبُونَ
Similar: أَنْ

adverb مَا · mā

whenever
as far as, to the extent that, to the degree that
with a frozen verb matching in form with its corresponding elative adjective in the accusative and followed by a direct object (oh) how...! مَا أَجْمَلَ ٱلْحَيَاةَ!

In English

what fused relative pronoun: that which; those that; the thing(s) that
not negates meaning of another word
how used as a modifier to indicate surprise, delight, or other strong feelings — see
so long as if, assuming
Ma Chinese surname

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Cite this

MLA

"ما." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ar/%D9%85%D8%A7. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ما. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ar/%D9%85%D8%A7

Chicago

"ما." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ar/%D9%85%D8%A7.

BibTeX

@misc{micwyn_2026,
  title = {ما},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ar/%D9%85%D8%A7},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}