Book Review: Arabic Practical Dictionary

Arabic Practical Dictionary
N.Awde & K.Smith
Published by Hippocrene Books
439 Pages

This dictionary was nicely compiled with more than 18,000 total entries of modern vocabulary covering politics, telecommunications, computers, business, and travel.

(Front of cover)

This dictionary has its pro’s and its con’s but overall I enjoy its convenient size, professional layout and the arrangement of the English section. I will list some of my dislikes of the book:

(Inside of Arabic-English Section)


This dictionary is transliterated which I hate transliteration because it is a crutch in learning how to correctly pronounce the Arabic words, I only use it when I think a non-Arabic reader is reading one of my translations. Placing the Arabic vowel signs on the words would have been more beneficial.


(Inside of English-Arabic Section)

The arrangement of the Arabic section is schizophrenic. They arranged all words beginning with Meem under Meem instead of under the Arabic words respective root. For example lets say you wanted to look up the word “Masjid” (here I go using transliteration uggh! But it is a must here!) you would have to look it up under Meem instead of its root Seen, Jeem, Daal. This is quite unorthodox since Arabic dictionaries are listed alphabetically by the root system.

There is a section in the back that includes the names of all the countries in Arabic that reaches 8 pages. I particularly enjoyed this part of the dictionary because it included a lot of the names of the Latin American countries that I didn’t know the names to, I mean who knew how to say Dominican in Arabic? Not me!



(Back of Cover, please excuse my name written on the back!)

The Arabic font is nice too which makes for easy reading on my bad bifocaled eyes and almost every word I needed to look up I ended up finding. While this may not equate to a Mawrid it is a modern reference work that lives up to its description. The price is a little steep but if you need a compact Arabic dictionary on the go then this is probably ideal for you to purchase.