خ (khāʾ) is letter 7 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ح ḥāʾ and د dāl. Its sound is ch, as in Scottish loch. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: خ خ خ خ. It is a moon letter, and its abjad value is 600.
Hear its name, خاء (khāʾ):
Khāʾ in all four positions
Khāʾ 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 خ. At the start of a word it is خ, in the middle خ, and at the end خ.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | خ | U+FEA5 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | خ | U+FEA7 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | خ | U+FEA8 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | خ | U+FEA6 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+062E (ARABIC LETTER KHAH); the codes in the table, U+FEA5 to U+FEA8, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Khāʾ is number 21 of the 28 letters by frequency, 0.9% 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 57%, medial in 41%, final in 1% and alone in 1% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce khāʾ
The sound of khāʾ is ch, as in Scottish loch, written kh in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart. English has no exact match, which puts khāʾ among the eleven sounds covered on our Arabic pronunciation guide. Its row from that guide:
| Where it is made | Back of the tongue rubbing the soft palate or uvula, no voice |
|---|---|
| Nearest English | The ch of Scottish loch |
| Confused with | ك k, or ح ḥ |
| Word pair that tests it | خَال khāl, maternal uncle / حَال ḥāl, condition |
In Arabic chat writing, where speakers type Arabic in Latin letters, khāʾ is written 5, 7ʼ or kh.
Arabic words with khāʾ
These 5 everyday words show khāʾ in real writing: it is initial in خبز, خال and خالة; medial in نخلة; alone in أخ. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our Arabic pronunciation guide and our list of Arabic family words, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Khāʾ here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| خبز | khubz | bread | initial | |
| نخلة | nakhla | palm tree | medial | |
| أخ | akh | brother | alone | |
| خال | khāl | maternal uncle | initial | |
| خالة | khāla | mother's sister | initial |
Khāʾ with al-, and its number
Khāʾ is a moon letter, so the l of al- (the) is pronounced before it: الخبز is al-khubz, the bread (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 600 in both the Mashriqi and the Maghribi order; our abjad calculator adds up whole words.
Letters that look like khāʾ
Khāʾ, ج jīm and ح ḥāʾ share the same belly, and only the dots tell them apart:
Khāʾ is the easiest of the eleven hard sounds, because Scottish loch and German Bach already have it. Keep it scratchy: if it comes out as a k, the tongue is closing completely instead of leaving a gap for air.
Practise writing khāʾ
Trace it on the free khāʾ tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 64 KB), which prints its four shapes beside خبز (khubz), نخلة (nakhla) and أخ (akh); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with khāʾ: Khalil in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter khāʾ?
The sound of khāʾ (خ) is ch, as in Scottish loch, written kh in transliteration. Learners often confuse it with ك k, or ح ḥ.
Does khāʾ join to the next letter?
Yes. Khāʾ joins on both sides, so it has four forms: خ alone, خ at the start of a word, خ in the middle and خ at the end.
Is khāʾ a sun letter or a moon letter?
A moon letter. Before khāʾ the l of al- is pronounced, so الخبز is al-khubz (the bread).
Which Arabic letters look like khāʾ?
خ khāʾ has one dot above, ج jīm has a dot inside and ح ḥāʾ has no dot. They share one shape and differ only in their dots.