Reference
The grammar words,
in plain language.
An A-Z of the Arabic writing and proofreading terms you actually meet, defined honestly and briefly. No jargon defended with more jargon.
Professional writing has its own vocabulary, and Arabic adds a layer most tools never model. These are the terms you meet using WriteX and talking to editors, defined in a sentence or two. Where a term maps to something WriteX does, we have linked it.
A
Alif maqsura (ألف مقصورة)
The dotless ya-shaped alif (ى) that ends words like مستشفى. Confusing it with ya (ي) is one of the most common Arabic spelling errors, and one WriteX checks by rule.
Agreement (مطابقة)
The requirement that verbs, adjectives, and numbers match their nouns in gender, number, and case. Compound numbers 13 to 19 famously disagree in gender with the counted noun, a rule WriteX explains when it corrects.
C
Case endings (إعراب)
The vowel endings that mark a word's grammatical role: raf' (nominative), nasb (accusative), and jarr (genitive). A noun after a preposition takes the genitive, which is why المشاركون becomes المشاركين. See proofreading.
Collective noun
A singular noun naming a group, like committee or فريق. In formal English it usually takes a singular verb; writers mixing the two conventions is a frequent grammar catch.
D
Diacritics (تشكيل)
The short-vowel marks (fatha, damma, kasra, sukun and friends) written above and below Arabic letters. Most prose omits them; WriteX can add them everywhere or only on ambiguous words. See writing tools.
Dignitary titles (ألقاب)
The approved honorifics for officials and royals. Institutional style guides define the exact form, and WriteX enforces it as a style-guide rule. See style guides.
E
Editorial policy (سياسة تحريرية)
An institution's rules for tone, terminology, and transliteration: writing غوغل rather than جوجل, for example. In WriteX these are live rules, not a PDF.
G
Grammar checking (التدقيق النحوي)
Detecting violations of syntactic rules: agreement, case, prepositions, verb forms. One of WriteX's eight color-coded categories.
H
Hamza (همزة)
The glottal-stop letter whose seat (on alif, waw, ya, or the line) is decided by the surrounding vowels, with the rule that the stronger vowel wins. Hamza placement is the classic Arabic spelling trap: يقرأون is wrong, يقرؤون is right.
Hijri date (التاريخ الهجري)
The Islamic lunar calendar date. Official documents in much of the region carry both calendars, and WriteX formats the pair automatically: 3 مارس 2024 الموافق 22 شعبان 1445.
L
Linguistic safety (السلامة اللغوية)
WriteX's headline quality score: the share of text free of detected errors, tracked per writer, team, and organization. See analytics.
M
Morphology (صرف)
The system of roots and patterns from which Arabic words are built: the root ذ ه ب gives ذهب, يذهب, مذهب, ذاهب. Morphological errors, like a wrong plural pattern, are their own category in WriteX, one no Latin-language checker has.
N
Named entity (كيان مسمى)
A proper name: person, organization, or place. WriteX checks names against a knowledge base, so ايلون مسك becomes إيلون ماسك with a card telling you who that is. See entity intelligence.
P
Paraphrasing (إعادة صياغة)
Rewriting a passage while preserving meaning, usually to change register or tighten prose. A one-click transformer in WriteX, always accept-or-dismiss.
Proofreading (تدقيق لغوي)
Systematic checking of text for errors before publication. WriteX classifies 12 error types across 8 categories and explains the rule behind each fix.
R
Register (مستوى اللغة)
How formal language is: a tweet and a royal decree use different Arabic. Style guides pin the register; the paraphraser can shift a sentence toward it.
Root (جذر)
The consonant skeleton, usually three letters, carrying a word family's core meaning. The word panel in WriteX shows every word's root, pattern, and conjugations.
S
Semantics (دلالة)
Meaning-level correctness: a grammatically fine word used in the wrong sense, like العديد where البعض is meant. A dedicated WriteX category.
Style guide (دليل الأسلوب)
The codified writing standard of an institution: titles, dates, terminology, formats. WriteX derives guides from national standards and enforces them as people type. See style guides.
Sound plural (جمع سالم)
The regular plural formed with suffixes (ون/ين for masculine, ات for feminine), as opposed to broken plurals that change the word's pattern. Formal style sometimes prefers one form, which is a morphology rule WriteX can state.
T
Tashkeel (تشكيل)
See diacritics. Full tashkeel vowels every letter; selective tashkeel marks only words a reader could misread, keeping the page clean but unambiguous.
Transliteration (نقحرة)
Writing a foreign name in Arabic letters. Institutions standardize one form per name (غوغل vs جوجل), and the institutional dictionary enforces it.
Definitions are general explanations of usage, not a grammar textbook. For the rules in action, start with proofreading or the Writing Academy.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between full and selective tashkeel?
Full tashkeel vowels every letter, which suits teaching material and speeches. Selective tashkeel marks only the words a reader could misread, keeping ordinary prose clean. WriteX offers both as one-click transformers.
Why does Arabic need a morphology category?
Arabic builds words from roots and patterns, so a word can be spelled plausibly yet built wrongly, like an incorrect plural pattern. Spelling lists cannot catch that; morphological analysis can.
What does linguistic safety mean?
It is WriteX's headline quality score: the share of text free of detected errors, tracked per writer, team, and organization in the analytics dashboards.
Every word your institution writes, checked.
Official letters to social posts, Arabic to English to Spanish. One assistant that proofreads, enforces your style, and explains every correction, wherever your teams write.
12 error types · Institutional style guides · Works in Office, browsers, and the web editor