ayyam

Ayyam is the Arabic word meaning "days." It is the plural form of yawm (day) and is used in both everyday language and literary or religious contexts to refer to days or periods of time. In Arabic morphology, the base form yawm is singular, with dual yawmān and plural ayyām, a pattern common to many plurals of time-related nouns.

In usage, ayyam appears in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic to indicate calendar days, dates, or other spans of time. It can be found in poetry, religious texts, and everyday speech to denote plural days or eras, rather than a single day. The term often appears in fixed expressions or phrases that specify a sequence of days or a timeframe.

A notable and widely cited usage is Ayyām al-Bayḍ (أيام البيض), commonly translated as the "White Days." This refers to the 13th, 14th, and 15th days of the lunar month when the moon is bright, and in some communities these days are associated with certain religious practices such as optional fasting.

Beyond this, ayyam may also occur in place names, literary titles, or other proper names in Arabic-speaking contexts, where it functions as a generic noun meaning days. The word remains a standard element of the Arabic lexicon for conveying time and chronology, spanning religious, historical, and cultural usage.