English Words of Arabic Origin
The Muslim world had an incredible influence on the discovery and development of modern scientific ideas. This influence is reflected in the many English words that originated from the Arabic language.
| ENGLISH | ARABIC |
| admiral | amir |
| alchemy | al-kimiya |
| alcohol | al-kohl |
| alcove | al-qubba |
| algebra | al-Jabr |
| algorithm | al-Khawarizmi |
| almanac | al-manaakh |
| atlas | atlas |
| camphor | kafur |
| cipher/zero | sifr |
| cornea | al-qarniya |
| cotton | al-qutn |
| elixir | al-aksir |
| gauze | al-gazz |
| monsoon | mawsim |
| safari | safara |
| sofa | suffa |
| talc | talq |
| typhoon | tufaan |
| vizier | waxir |
| zenith | semit |
Some English words originated with Arabic but took a circuitous route into our vocabulary. Of all western European languages, Spanish has the highest concentration of words from Arabic, and some words that we may think of as Spanish were originally Arabic.
