dancing in Arabic: رقص (raqs) – meaning, pronunciation, examples

How to use it

"Dancing" refers to the act of moving rhythmically to music. In Arabic it is a masculine noun (الرَّقْص). Use it with the definite article when specific, otherwise in the indefinite form. It can also describe a style, e.g., رَقْص بَلَدِيّ (folk dancing).

Example sentences

يُحِبُّ أَحْمَدُ الرَّقْصَ بَعْدَ الدُّرُوسِ.

yuḥibbu Aḥmadu ar‑raqaṣa baʿda ad‑durūsi

Ahmed loves dancing after classes.
تُقَامُ حَفْلَةُ رَقْصٍ فِي المَسْرَحِ.

tuqāmu ḥaflatu raqṣin fī al‑masraḥi

A dancing party is held in the theater.
تُعَلِّمُ المَدرَسَةُ الطُّلَّابَ رَقْصَ البَلَدِيّ.

tuʿallimu al‑madrasatu aṭ‑ṭullāba raqṣa al‑baladiyy

The school teaches students folk dancing.

Examples from real texts

Sentences taken from published bilingual texts (subtitles, documents). They show the word in context and are not reviewed one by one.

Sami was dancing.

كان سامي يرقص.

Sami started dancing.

بدأ سامي يرقص.

Fadil started dancing.

بدأ فاضل يرقص.

Everybody is watching Jamal dancing.

الجميع يشاهد جمال و هو يرقص.

I saw Tom dancing with another girl.

رأيت توم يرقص مع فتاة أخرى.

There's a book about dancing on the desk.

يوجد كتاب عن الرقص على المنضدة.

Today, the EU is dancing to Fidel’s tune.

اليوم يرقص الاتحاد الأوروبي على أنغامفيدل.

Out of chaos is often born the dancing star.

وكثيرا ما يتبع الكارثة نوع من الفرج.

Al-Jaf kept dancing, singing and rapping anyway.

على أية حال استمر الجاف في الرقص وغناء والراب.

Gather my beloved near, and our chanting will be dancing.

وسوف اجمع احبائي بقربي وسوف نرقص على انغامنا

Hi. For those of you who haven't seen dancing bears, these are the dancing bears.

مرحباً. لأؤلئك الذين لم يروا الدببة الراقصة، ها هي الدببة الراقصة.

But he pushed himself to keep dancing anyway, despite the negative connotations his society had with men and dancing.

ومع ذلك استمر فى الرقص على الرغم من انتقادات المجتمع".

Questions and answers

Can "dancing" be used as a verb?

In Arabic the verb is يَرْقُصُ (yarquṣu). The noun "dancing" is الرَّقْصُ.

Is "الرقص" always masculine?

Yes, the word is grammatically masculine even though the activity can involve any gender.