س (sīn) is letter 12 of the 28 in the Arabic alphabet, between ز zāy and ش shīn. Its sound is s, as in sun. It joins on both sides, so it has four shapes: س س س س. It is a sun letter, and its abjad value is 60.
Hear its name, سين (sīn):
Sīn in all four positions
Sīn 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 س. At the start of a word it is س, in the middle س, and at the end س.
| Position | Shape | Code point | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | س | U+FEB1 | written alone, or after a letter that does not join forward |
| Initial | س | U+FEB3 | at the start of a word or a piece of a word |
| Medial | س | U+FEB4 | between two letters that join it |
| Final | س | U+FEB2 | at the end of a word, joined from the letter before |
Typed text stores all four shapes as one character, U+0633 (ARABIC LETTER SEEN); the codes in the table, U+FEB1 to U+FEB4, are presentation forms that the Unicode Arabic FAQ does not recommend for regular text.
Sīn is number 14 of the 28 letters by frequency, 2.6% 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 45%, medial in 40%, final in 10% and alone in 4% of its occurrences.
How to pronounce sīn
The sound of sīn is s, as in sun, written s in the transliteration of our Arabic alphabet chart.
Arabic words with sīn
These 5 everyday words show sīn in real writing: it is initial in سمك, سيف and سحور; final in شمس; alone in درس. The first three are the practice words printed on its worksheet; the others come from our Arabic pronunciation guide and our page of Islamic phrases in Arabic, and more words by topic are in our Arabic vocabulary lists.
| Word | Transliteration | Meaning | Sīn here | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| سمك | samak | fish | initial | |
| درس | dars | lesson | alone | |
| شمس | shams | sun | final | |
| سيف | sayf | sword | initial | |
| سحور | saḥūr | the pre-dawn meal | initial |
Sīn with al-, and its number
Sīn is a sun letter, so the l of al- (the) goes silent before it: السمك is said as-samak, the fish (test any word in our sun and moon letters checker).
Its abjad value is 60 in the common Mashriqi order but 300 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 sīn
Sīn and ش shīn share the same three teeth, and only the dots tell them apart:
- س sīn: no dot
- ش shīn: three dots above
Sīn is the plain s. Its emphatic partner is ṣād ص, and the pair سَيْف sayf (sword) and صَيْف ṣayf (summer) is the classic test: in the second word the vowel darkens toward the a of father.
Practise writing sīn
Trace it on the free sīn tracing worksheet (PDF, one page, 63 KB), which prints its four shapes beside سمك (samak), درس (dars) and شمس (shams); the other 27 are on our Arabic writing worksheets page.
Words and names that start with sīn: Sarah in Arabic.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce the Arabic letter sīn?
The sound of sīn (س) is s, as in sun, written s in transliteration.
Does sīn join to the next letter?
Yes. Sīn joins on both sides, so it has four forms: س alone, س at the start of a word, س in the middle and س at the end.
Is sīn a sun letter or a moon letter?
A sun letter. Before sīn the l of al- goes silent and the letter doubles, so السمك is said as-samak (the fish).
Which Arabic letters look like sīn?
س sīn has no dot and ش shīn has three dots above. They share one shape and differ only in their dots.