طبيب
“طبيب” (табииб) — doctor in Arabic. Noun, level A1. From tabiiba — to treat: the doctor is the one who treats. A woman is tabiiba, and one addresses them as "doctor": in Arab clinics this word is said more. In a live sentence: “طبيب الأسنان” — A dentist. Written with the characters ط, ب, ي, ب. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | طبيب |
| Read in Latin letters | табииб |
| Translation | doctor |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From tabiiba — to treat: the doctor is the one who treats. A woman is tabiiba, and one addresses them as "doctor": in Arab clinics this word is said more
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.
- طبيب الأسنانтабииб аль-аснаанA dentist
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 “doctor” in Arabic?
«طبيب», read “табииб”. In a live sentence: “طبيب الأسنان” — A dentist. Noun, level A1; written with the characters ط, ب, ي, ب.
How is “طبيب” written in Latin letters?
табииб. 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 tabiiba — to treat: the doctor is the one who treats. A woman is tabiiba, and one addresses them as "doctor": in Arab clinics this word is said more. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.