ظ (ẓāʾ) is letter 17 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ط ṭāʾ and ع ʿayn. Its sound is a heavy th, as in this, with the tongue pulled back. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: ظ ظ ظ ظ. It is a sun letter, and its abjad value is 900.
Hear its name, ظاء (ẓāʾ):
Ẓāʾ in all four positions
Ẓāʾ joins to the letter before it and to the letter after it, so its shape depends on where it sits in a word. Alone it is ظ. At the start of a word it is ظ, in the middle ظ, and at the end ظ.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | ظ | U+FEC5 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | ظ | U+FEC7 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | ظ | U+FEC8 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | ظ | U+FEC6 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+0638 (ARABIC LETTER ZAH); the codes in the table, U+FEC5 to U+FEC8, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Ẓāʾ is number 28 of the 28 letters by frequency, 0.3% of all letters, in the 50,000 most common word forms of Arabic film and TV subtitles (hermitdave/FrequencyWords, OpenSubtitles 2018), each form counted as often as it occurs; it is initial in 18%, medial in 70%, final in 5% and alone in 6% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce ẓāʾ
The sound of ẓāʾ is a heavy th, as in this, with the tongue pulled back, written ẓ in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. English has no exact match, which puts ẓāʾ among the eleven sounds covered on our Arabic pronunciation guide. Its row from that guide:
| Where it is made | The th of this, with the back of the tongue pulled up and back |
|---|---|
| Nearest English | The th in those, said darker |
| Confused with | ذ dh |
| Word pair that tests it | ظَلَّ ẓalla, he remained / ذَلَّ dhalla, he was humbled |
Spoken dialects do not all say ẓāʾ the same way. Learn the Standard sound first, because every speaker recognises it; this is what you will hear instead.
| Modern Standard | Egyptian (Cairo) | Levantine (cities) | Gulf (Kuwait, Qatar, Najd) | Libyan (Tripoli) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| emphatic dh: ظرف ẓarf, envelope | ḍ, or an emphatic z in learned words | ḍ or z, depending on the word: zarf, but ḍill for ظل ẓill, shadow | emphatic dh, kept | ḍ |
In Arabic chat writing, where speakers type Arabic in Latin letters, ẓāʾ is written 6ʼ.
Arabic words with ẓāʾ
These 5 everyday words show ẓāʾ in real writing: it is initial in ظهر, ظرف and ظل; medial in نظيف; final in حظ. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our Arabic pronunciation guide, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Ẓāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ظهر | ẓuhr | noon | initial | |
| نظيف | naẓīf | clean | medial | |
| حظ | ḥaẓẓ | luck | final | |
| ظرف | ẓarf | envelope | initial | |
| ظل | ẓill | shadow | initial |
Ẓāʾ with al-, and its number
Ẓāʾ is a sun letter, so the l of al- (the) goes silent before it: الظهر is said aẓ-ẓuhr, the noon (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 900 in the common Mashriqi order but 800 in the Maghribi order once used in North Africa and al-Andalus; our abjad calculator adds up whole words in both.
Letters that look like ẓāʾ
Ẓāʾ and ط ṭāʾ share the same body, and only the dots tell them apart:
- ظ ẓāʾ: one dot above
- ط ṭāʾ: no dot
Ẓāʾ is the heavy partner of dhāl ذ: the th of this, said with the back of the tongue pulled up and back, which darkens the vowel beside it. Practise it against ذَلَّ dhalla (he was humbled) with ظَلَّ ẓalla (he remained), and copy the ẓāʾ recording on our pronunciation guide.
Practise writing ẓāʾ
Trace it on the free ẓāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 67 KB), which prints its four shapes beside ظهر (ẓuhr), نظيف (naẓīf) and حظ (ḥaẓẓ); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter ẓāʾ?
The sound of ẓāʾ (ظ) is a heavy th, as in this, with the tongue pulled back, written ẓ in transliteration. Learners often confuse it with ذ dh.
Does ẓāʾ join to the next letter?
Yes. Ẓāʾ joins on both sides, so it has four forms: ظ alone, ظ at the start of a word, ظ in the middle and ظ at the end.
Is ẓāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A sun letter. Before ẓāʾ the l of al- goes silent and the letter doubles, so الظهر is said aẓ-ẓuhr (the noon).
Which Arabic letters look like ẓāʾ?
ظ ẓāʾ has one dot above and ط ṭāʾ has no dot. They share one shape and differ only in their dots.