Arabic swear words

“bitch / whore / slut”

A highly offensive term for a woman, implying she is a prostitute or extremely promiscuous.

“my dick / fuck off / I don't care”

The Arabic word for penis in its possessive form — 'my dick.' Functions identically to 'dick' in English: anatomical term, exclamation of frustration, and dismissal all in one. 'Zubbi feek' (my dick in you) is the standard Levantine escalation. On its own, 'zubbi!' is what you shout when you stub your toe or your team concedes a goal.

“son of a bitch squared / absolute scum”

Doubling down on the dog insult — you're not just a dog, your father was also a dog. It's the Arabic technique of compounding insults for emphasis: if kalb is bad and ibn el kalb (already in seed) is worse, kalb ibn kalb is the full lineage attack. Your entire family tree is canine. No human was involved at any point.

“kiss my ass”

A vulgar phrase of strong dismissal and disrespect.

“motherfucker / fuck you”

Considered one of the most offensive Arabic swear words. It directly attacks a person's mother, which is the ultimate violation of family honor.

“pimp / scumbag / bastard”

An insult implying a man is a pimp, or worse, someone who pimps out his own female relatives (a cuckold with no honor).

“fuck your sister”

Wait — 'كس أختك (Kess ikhtak)' is already in the seed file. But this entry notes it's listed with the Lebanese pronunciation 'Kess ikhtak' while the broader Arabic rendering 'Kuss ukhtak' differs in dialect. Skipping this — duplicate detected.

“son of a whore / motherfucker”

Your mother has been fucked — not by your father through marriage, but indiscriminately. 'Metnaaka' is the feminine passive participle of 'naak' (to fuck), so it literally means 'a woman who has been fucked.' The insult says your mother's defining characteristic is having been sexually used.

“whore / slut”

The standalone word for whore — while 'ibn el qahba' (son of a whore) is already in the seed file, the word 'qahba' by itself is a direct attack on a woman (or feminizing attack on a man). It's the classical Arabic word for prostitute, appearing in medieval texts, and it has never softened. Across every dialect, qahba retains maximum impact.

“fucker / dickhead / asshole”

From the root 'n-y-k' (to fuck), 'mnayyak' is the active participle — 'one who fucks' — but used as a general-purpose insult meaning 'asshole' or 'fucker.' Despite its sexual etymology, it's used so broadly in Levantine Arabic that it's become almost a generic intensifier. 'El mnayyak dah' (this fucker) can refer to a broken pipe, a bad boss, or a traffic jam.

“cunt / pussy”

The standalone word for vagina in vulgar Arabic. While 'kus ummak' and 'kess ikhtak' are already in the seed file, the word 'kuss' alone functions as both an anatomical term and a powerful exclamation. Shouting 'kuss!' alone in Arabic is like shouting 'cunt!' in British English — maximally shocking as a standalone.

“eat shit / shut the fuck up”

A vulgar way to tell someone to shut up or express extreme annoyance and contempt.

“lowlife / scum / low-class”

Someone who is morally, socially, or behaviorally low — the adjective form where 'safala' is the abstract noun. 'Wāti' is what you call someone directly: you, personally, are low. It covers everything from poor manners to criminal behavior to social climbing that fails. A wāti person doesn't meet the minimum standard of decency.

“old hag / ugly woman / jalopy (for a woman)”

Literally an old, battered boat — Lebanese slang for an unattractive, run-down looking woman. The marine metaphor is quintessentially Beiruti: a shakhtoora is a woman who's let herself go, who looks worn out, who's past her prime. It's cruel body-shaming wrapped in nautical imagery, and it's one of those insults that sounds almost affectionate because of how ridiculous it is.

“you loser / you're useless / what crap”

Zift is tar or asphalt — the black, sticky, worthless residue. Calling something or someone 'zift' means they're utterly worthless and unpleasant. 'El film dah zift' (this movie is zift) is the Egyptian Rotten Tomatoes. The word has an almost playful quality despite being negative — it's too mild to offend and too expressive not to use.

“your sister's a whore / sister-fucker context”

Calling a man's sister a sharmouta (whore) — the sister-targeted equivalent of 'ibn el sharmouta' (which attacks through the mother). Targeting the sister is considered by many to be even more provocative because sisters are younger, present, and the man's active responsibility to protect. It's the insult most likely to trigger physical violence across the Arab world.

“bastard / illegitimate”

A child born from haram (forbidden) — meaning outside of marriage. In Islamic law, children born from zina (adultery/fornication) have a different legal status regarding inheritance and naming. Calling someone ibn haram says their very existence is a sin, that they were never supposed to be born, that their mother committed one of Islam's gravest crimes to produce them.

“trash / garbage / worthless”

Garbage — literal refuse, the stuff in the dumpster. Calling a person zibala says they belong in the trash. It's a dehumanizing class insult that strips someone of all dignity and value. In Arabic cities where garbage collection is often inadequate and trash piles up visibly, the word has an olfactory, sensory dimension.