What’s a root?

Most words in the Arabic language, as in other Semitic languages, are based on roots consisting of three letters (or sometimes more). These roots have certain connotations, and words based on the same root tend to have related meanings. For example, the Arabic words for “book” (kitaab), “to write” (kataba), “writer” (kaatib), and “library” (maktaba) all share the same root, k-t-b (ك ت ب).

This site lists the most common roots in Arabic, ordered by how frequently they appear in text. Of course, roots' frequencies depend on the collection of texts, or corpus, being analyzed. You can select a corpus on the main page to see the 500 most frequent roots in that corpus. Certain corpuses have certain quirks: for example, Open Source Arabic Corpora (OSAC) includes a lot of cooking-related content, causing the frequency of words like “recipe” and “pepper” to be quite high.

In the future, more corpuses will be added, and a more comprehensive list of roots will be displayed.

No precise number exists for the total number of roots in Arabic. Gerald Drissner writes that the Hans Wehr Arabic dictionary lists 2,967 roots, while the classical Arabic dictionary Lisan al-Arab recorded 9,273 roots (however, the latter included many non-Arabic loanwords as well). Either way, although the number of Arabic roots runs well into the thousands, many of these appear infrequently.

What’s the point of this site?

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first attempt to create a frequency dictionary specifically for Arabic roots (as opposed to words). It’s intended partly as a resource for Arabic language learners, who by understanding the core meanings of the most common roots will be able to more easily read Arabic; and partly to satisfy my curiosity about Arabic roots' relative frequency. (The top 500 roots account for more than 80% of Arabic words by frequency, if we exclude "small words" like prepositions.)

The most frequently appearing roots are clickable, so that one can see the most common words falling under that root.

Click here (in progress) to read more about the methodology used to create these frequency dictionaries.

Contact

Email: info at arabicroots.org