‘Akhbaar’: Arabic word for news describes all forms of important information

Other words derived from the same root letters have similar themes of truth and spreading information

Akhbaar is the Arabic word for news

They say “no news is good news”.

It’s also a widely known fact that no one wants to be the bearer of bad news. And often we are given the choice: “Do you want the good news or bad news first?”

There are plenty of well-known phrases concerning our Arabic word of the week, akhbaar, which means news.

To be specific, akhbaar is the plural for a piece of news.

In English, the word news is considered singular and uncountable. There can be a “piece of news” but news can also refer to more than one piece of news.

In Arabic khabar refers to a singular piece of news about one particular subject and akhbaar refers to general news that can include several different topics.

In fact, akhbaar is derived from the word khabar, a verb whose root is the three Arabic letters kha, bah and rah.

Both akhbaar and khabar can relate to news that is delivered, either verbally or in a written format.

They could be in the form of a letter, by word of mouth or a message over the phone.

Akhbaar can also be communicated through more formal channels such as a newspaper, magazine, a journal, the radio, or a televised news report.

Nashrat Al Akhbaar, which translates to news bulletin, also refers to official news that is of concern or interest to the public.

This is delivered either through radio or television and, in more contemporary times, through social media platforms, where the happenings and developments concerning a country and the world are communicated.

These topics vary wildly and include politics, economics, health, society, local stories and more.

Many other words are derived from the same root letters of akhbaar and, while they may mean different things, deal with similar ideas.

Khabbara is a verb that means to tell or report the discovery a topic, or some element of a topic, through personal experience. This also relates to the work khibra, which means experience, and khabeer (masculine) or khabeera (feminine) which means someone who is an expert on a specific topic.

Akhbara, meanwhile, is a verb that refers to information being transferred or shared from one person or party to the next while khabbir, which sounds similar to khabar, is a command verb that means to tell someone a piece of news.

Truth is a strong theme that runs through akhbaar, khabar and many other words derived from the three letters kha, bah and rah. More specially the truth of what is or has happened and then the transfer of that truth to a person or a wide range of people.