The Arabic word for family is عائلة (ʿāʾila), or أسرة (usra) for the smaller household. Arabic then splits every relative by side: your father's brother is عم (ʿamm), your mother's brother is خال (khāl), and that single split gives Arabic eight separate words for what English calls a cousin.
Most English-language lists of family words in Arabic give you a flat column of Arabic next to a column of English, which works right up to the point where eight different Arabic words all come back as "cousin" and you have to pick one. The tables below map each term to the exact relative it means.
| Relative | Arabic | Transliteration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| family (the wide one) | عائلة | ʿāʾila | Everyone you are related to, in-laws included |
| household, nuclear family | أسرة | usra | Parents and children only. The word on official forms |
| relatives | أقارب | aqārib | Plural of قريب (qarīb), a relative |
| parents | والدان | wālidān | Dual form. In speech people say الأهل (al-ahl) |
| father | أب | ab | والد (wālid) on documents |
| mother | أم | umm | والدة (wālida) on documents |
| son | ابن | ibn | ولد (walad) also means boy |
| daughter | بنت | bint | ابنة (ibna) is the formal written form |
| brother | أخ | akh | Plural إخوة (ikhwa) |
| sister | أخت | ukht | Plural أخوات (akhawāt) |
| grandfather | جد | jadd | Either side. Arabic does not split this one |
| grandmother | جدة | jadda | Either side |
| grandson | حفيد | ḥafīd | Plural أحفاد (aḥfād) |
| granddaughter | حفيدة | ḥafīda | |
| husband | زوج | zawj | |
| wife | زوجة | zawja | |
| father's brother | عم | ʿamm | Never used for the mother's side |
| father's sister | عمة | ʿamma | |
| mother's brother | خال | khāl | Never used for the father's side |
| mother's sister | خالة | khāla | |
| nephew, brother's son | ابن أخ | ibn akh | No single word. Arabic says son of a brother |
| nephew, sister's son | ابن أخت | ibn ukht | |
| niece, brother's daughter | بنت أخ | bint akh | |
| niece, sister's daughter | بنت أخت | bint ukht |
Why Arabic has eight words for cousin
Arabic has no word for cousin. It names the relative instead, by combining son or daughter with one of the four aunt and uncle words, which produces eight terms covering the eight ways a first cousin can be related to you. English collapses all eight into one word and throws the rest away. Arabic keeps it, so a speaker who hears بنت خالتي (bint khālatī) already knows the person is on the mother's side before anything else is said.
| The exact relative | Arabic | Transliteration | Literally |
|---|---|---|---|
| Father's brother's son | ابن عم | ibn ʿamm | son of the paternal uncle |
| Father's brother's daughter | بنت عم | bint ʿamm | daughter of the paternal uncle |
| Father's sister's son | ابن عمة | ibn ʿamma | son of the paternal aunt |
| Father's sister's daughter | بنت عمة | bint ʿamma | daughter of the paternal aunt |
| Mother's brother's son | ابن خال | ibn khāl | son of the maternal uncle |
| Mother's brother's daughter | بنت خال | bint khāl | daughter of the maternal uncle |
| Mother's sister's son | ابن خالة | ibn khāla | son of the maternal aunt |
| Mother's sister's daughter | بنت خالة | bint khāla | daughter of the maternal aunt |
To say "my cousin" you attach the possessive to the second word, not the first: ابن عمي (ibn ʿammī) is the son of my paternal uncle. Do not put the article on the first word either. ابن العم (ibn al-ʿamm) is correct and الابن عم is not. The two words form an إضافة (iḍāfa), the possessive construction, and only the last word in an iḍāfa is allowed to carry the article.
One usage to be ready for in the Gulf: a man may refer to his wife as بنت العم (bint al-ʿamm), whether or not she is actually a paternal cousin. It is a polite way of talking about her without using her name.
Arabic in-law words, and which relative each one means
Arabic has dedicated single words for the four in-laws that matter most legally, and phrases for the rest. حم (ḥam) and حماة (ḥamāh) are the parents of your spouse, صهر (ṣihr) is your daughter's husband, and كنة (kanna) is your son's wife. Brothers and sisters-in-law get named as "brother of the husband" and so on, except in the dialects, which invented words for them.
| The exact relative | Arabic | Transliteration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Father-in-law | حم | ḥam | Becomes حمو (ḥamū) with a suffix. حما (ḥamā) is the everyday form |
| Mother-in-law | حماة | ḥamāh | Also حماية (ḥamāya) in Levantine speech |
| Daughter's husband | صهر | ṣihr | Stretches to cover any man who marries into the family |
| Son's wife | كنة | kanna | |
| Husband's brother | أخو الزوج | akhū al-zawj | No single word in Modern Standard Arabic |
| Wife's brother | أخو الزوجة | akhū al-zawja | نسيب (nasīb) in Levantine and Egyptian speech |
| Husband's sister | أخت الزوج | ukht al-zawj | |
| Wife's sister | أخت الزوجة | ukht al-zawja | |
| The wife of your husband's brother | سلفة | silfa | Dialect, not Modern Standard. What two women married to brothers call each other |
| The husband of your wife's sister | عديل | ʿadīl | Dialect. What two men married to sisters call each other |
| In-laws, collectively | أنسباء | ansibāʾ | نسايب (nasāyib) in speech |
| Stepfather | زوج الأم | zawj al-umm | Literally the mother's husband |
| Stepmother | زوجة الأب | zawjat al-ab |
The forms you actually hear: family words with a possessive ending
Nobody says أب (ab) in conversation. Family words are almost always spoken with a possessive suffix attached, so what reaches your ear is أبوك (abūk), your father, not the bare noun in the dictionary. Learn the dictionary form on its own and you will read a family word on paper without hearing it when someone says it to you.
| Dictionary form | my ... | your ... (to a man) | your ... (to a woman) |
|---|---|---|---|
| أب ab, father | أبي abī | أبوك abūk | أبوكِ abūki |
| أم umm, mother | أمي ummī | أمك ummak | أمكِ ummik |
| أخ akh, brother | أخي akhī | أخوك akhūk | أخوكِ akhūki |
| أخت ukht, sister | أختي ukhtī | أختك ukhtak | أختكِ ukhtik |
| ابن ibn, son | ابني ibnī | ابنك ibnak | ابنكِ ibnik |
| بنت bint, daughter | بنتي bintī | بنتك bintak | بنتكِ bintik |
| جد jadd, grandfather | جدي jaddī | جدك jaddak | جدكِ jaddik |
| عم ʿamm, paternal uncle | عمي ʿammī | عمك ʿammak | عمكِ ʿammik |
| خالة khāla, maternal aunt | خالتي khālatī | خالتك khālatak | خالتكِ khālatik |
| حم ḥam, father-in-law | حمي ḥamī | حموك ḥamūk | حموكِ ḥamūki |
| زوجة zawja, wife | زوجتي zawjatī | زوجتك zawjatak | — |
Three of those rows behave differently from the rest, and it is not a typo. أب, أخ and حم belong to a group grammarians call الأسماء الخمسة (al-asmāʾ al-khamsa), the five nouns. They do not simply gain an ending when a suffix is attached; they grow a long vowel that carries the grammatical case, so أب becomes أبو as a subject, أبا as an object and أبي after a preposition. Your father as a subject is أبوك (abūk); after مع (maʿa, with) it is أبيك (abīk). The suffix ـي for "my" is the exception that swallows the whole thing: أبي (abī) and أخي (akhī), with no long vowel visible.
Watch the ة too. Words ending in tāʾ marbūṭa untie it into a full ت as soon as anything is attached, which is why خالة (khāla) turns into خالتي (khālatī) rather than khālaī. The same rule governs every other suffix in the language, and the full Arabic possessive suffix paradigm lays out all twelve endings against a plain noun.
How to read these tables
Read each row left to right: the relative in English, then the Arabic script, then the transliteration. The Arabic is written unvocalized, the way it appears in a text message or on a form, so the vowels live in the transliteration column. Long vowels take a macron (ā, ī, ū), the emphatic consonants take a dot underneath (ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ḥ), ʿ is the letter ayn and ʾ is hamza. That one scheme runs through the whole page.
The possessive forms are given in the pausal shape, which is what you hear. Fully vocalized Modern Standard Arabic adds a case vowel on the end, so أبوك is read abūka in a Quranic recitation or a news broadcast and abūk in every conversation. Both are the same word. Say the short one.
Calling a stranger ʿamm or khāla
The kinship words are also the ordinary polite way to address people you are not related to at all. This is the part of the page you will use on day one. A man roughly your father's age is عمي (ʿammī) or, in Levantine and Egyptian speech, عمو (ʿammo). A woman of the same generation is خالة (khāla) or خالتي (khāltī). Someone closer to your own age is أخي (akhī) or أختي (ukhtī). That covers the shopkeeper and the taxi driver and almost everyone else you speak to in a day.
Levantine goes one step further and runs the address backwards. An older man will call a small child عمو (ʿammo) as well, so the word travels in both directions and means, roughly, "you and I are in an uncle-and-nephew relationship" rather than "you are my uncle". Egyptian children also use طنط (ṭanṭ), borrowed straight from French tante, for a family friend. None of this is in the textbooks, and you will hear it within an hour of landing.
What changes in the dialects
The kinship system itself is identical everywhere; only the pronunciation and a few of the everyday words shift. Every dialect keeps the paternal and maternal split, so عم and خال mean the same thing from Morocco to Oman. What moves is the word for family itself, and the words small children use for their parents. Ask how to say family in Arabic in Beirut and then in Cairo and you get two pronunciations of one word.
Levantine says عيلة (ʿēle) for family and أهلي (ahlī) for my parents, with إمي (immi) for my mother and بيي (bayyi) for my father in Lebanon and Syria. Brother is often خيي (khayyi) rather than akhī. Egyptian keeps عيلة (ʿēla) and uses أبويا (abūya) and أمي (ummi), with بابا and ماما everywhere among children. Gulf speakers use يبه (yuba) and يمه (yumma) to call out to a parent, forms that will sound like nothing you studied. Our pages on the Levantine dialect family and Gulf Arabic (Khaleeji) resources cover the wider vocabulary differences.
Which leaves one real trap, and it is not a pronunciation trap. Treating عم and خال as two spellings of "uncle" will get you into trouble: call your mother's brother عمي and you have not made an accent slip, you have told the room he is your father's brother. Learn the four aunt and uncle words as a set of four, each with its side attached, and the eight cousin terms build themselves.
More Arabic reference tables
This page is one of a set of charts we keep for looking things up rather than reading through:
- The days of the week in Arabic, in Modern Standard and four dialects, with the country-by-country answer on which day the week starts
- Arabic colour words with their plural forms, including the plurals every other list leaves out
- Arabic phrases for everyday situations, for the sentences these family words go inside
- Downloadable Arabic vocabulary lists, as plain files or ready-made Anki decks
Frequently asked questions
What is the word for family in Arabic?
There are two, and they are not interchangeable. Aa'ila, spelled ayn-alif-hamza-lam-ta marbuta, is the wide family: parents, children, grandparents, cousins, in-laws. Usra is the household, meaning parents and their children only, and it is the word you meet on official forms and in the census. Ahl is a third option used in speech, closer to my people or my folks.
What is the Arabic word for my family?
Aa'ilati, from aa'ila plus the suffix -i, my. Usrati works the same way for the household sense. In speech you will hear the dialect forms far more often: 'eelti in Levantine Arabic and 'elti in Egyptian, both from the same root. Ahli, my people, is used the same way and is the most common of all in casual speech.
How do you say family in Lebanese Arabic?
'Eele, written ayn-ya-lam-ta marbuta, with 'eelti for my family. It is the same word as Modern Standard aa'ila with the hamza dropped and the vowel shortened, which is the regular Levantine treatment of that pattern. Ahl and ahli are used just as often in Lebanon, and older speakers also use dar, house, to mean a whole extended family.
What is the difference between amm and khaal in Arabic?
Amm is your father's brother and khaal is your mother's brother. Arabic has no word that covers both, so English uncle cannot be translated without knowing which side of the family the person is on. The same split runs through the aunts: amma is the father's sister and khaala is the mother's sister. It also produces eight separate Arabic words for cousin.
How do you say cousin in Arabic?
Arabic has no single word for cousin. You name the relative: ibn amm is the father's brother's son, bint khaala is the mother's sister's daughter, and there are eight combinations in total from two genders times four aunts and uncles. In loose speech ibn ammi gets used for any cousin and even for a friend, but the precise form is what you will read and what people use when the relationship matters.