“badly” in Arabic dialects
adverb
How do you say badly across the major spoken Arabic dialects? Compare badly (adverb) sense by sense across 5 dialects — Egyptian, Levantine, Gulf, Iraqi, Maghrebi — with English meaning, native script, transliteration and usage.
What does “badly” mean?
adverb
- To a severe or serious degree“fingers so badly frozen they had to be amputated”
- (`ill' is often used as a combining form) in a poor or improper or unsatisfactory manner; not well“he was ill prepared”
- Evilly or wickedly“treated his parents badly”
English definitions from Princeton WordNet.
Quick comparison across dialects
| Dialect | Arabic (badly) | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|
| Egyptian Arabic | وحش | wiḥish |
| Levantine Arabic | مش منيح | mish mnīḥ |
| Gulf Arabic | مب زين | mib zēn |
| Iraqi Arabic | بشكل مو زين | b-shikil mū zēn |
| Maghrebi Arabic | ماشي مزيان | māshi mezyān |
Full breakdown by dialect
Egyptian Arabic
| Word (Arabic) | Transliteration | English sense / usage |
|---|---|---|
| وحش | wiḥish | poorly, not well |
| أوي | āwi | severely, very much |
| بشكل وحش | bi-shakl wiḥish | in a bad manner |
Levantine Arabic
| Word (Arabic) | Transliteration | English sense / usage |
|---|---|---|
| مش منيح | mish mnīḥ | poorly, not well |
| بطريقة بشعة | bi-ṭarīʾa bishʿa | in a bad/ugly manner |
| كتير | ktīr | severely, very much |
Gulf Arabic
| Word (Arabic) | Transliteration | English sense / usage |
|---|---|---|
| مب زين | mib zēn | poorly, not well |
| بشكل سيء | bi-shakil sayyiʾ | in a bad way |
| حيل | ḥīl | severely, very much (e.g. 'needed badly') |
Iraqi Arabic
| Word (Arabic) | Transliteration | English sense / usage |
|---|---|---|
| بشكل مو زين | b-shikil mū zēn | in a bad way, poorly |
| بسوء | b-sūʾ | poorly, with malice |
Maghrebi Arabic
| Word (Arabic) | Transliteration | English sense / usage |
|---|---|---|
| ماشي مزيان | māshi mezyān | not well, poorly (Moroccan) |
| ماشي مليح | māshi mlīḥ | not well, poorly (Algerian) |
| موش باهي | mūsh bāhi | not well, poorly (Tunisian) |
| بطريقة خايبة | b-ṭarīqa khāyba | in a bad way, in a poor manner |
Need a custom bilingual dictionary built?
We build sense-tagged dictionaries and word lists across languages and dialects for publishers, app makers and localization teams — to your spec, in CSV, XLSX or print-ready formats.