المعرفة
“المعرفة” (аль-маʿрифа) — knowledge in Arabic. Noun, level B1. From the verb "he came to know": knowledge is maʿrifa — what a person carried out of the meeting with the world. Bayt al-maʿrifa — "the house of knowledge" — was the name of the ancient library of Baghdad. In a live sentence: “المعرفة في الكتب” — Knowledge is in the books. Written with the characters ا, ل, م, ع, ر, ف, ة. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | المعرفة |
| Read in Latin letters | аль-маʿрифа |
| Translation | knowledge |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
From the verb "he came to know": knowledge is maʿrifa — what a person carried out of the meeting with the world. Bayt al-maʿrifa — "the house of knowledge" — was the name of the ancient library of Baghdad
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- المعرفة في الكتبаль-маʿрифа фи аль-кутубKnowledge is in the books
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “knowledge” in Arabic?
«المعرفة», read “аль-маʿрифа”. In a live sentence: “المعرفة في الكتب” — Knowledge is in the books. Noun, level B1; written with the characters ا, ل, م, ع, ر, ف, ة.
How is “المعرفة” written in Latin letters?
аль-маʿрифа. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From the verb "he came to know": knowledge is maʿrifa — what a person carried out of the meeting with the world. Bayt al-maʿrifa — "the house of knowledge" — was the name of the ancient library of Baghdad. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.