muddat

Muddat is a term used in several languages of South and West Asia to denote a period, duration, or fixed term. The word is derived from the Arabic مدة (mudda), meaning "duration" or "interval," and entered Persian, Urdu, Hindi and Turkish (müddet) through historical linguistic contact.

In everyday speech, muddat commonly refers to an interval of time, often implying a significant or unspecified length. For example, in Urdu and Hindi idioms it appears in expressions equivalent to "after a long time" or "it has been a long while." Spelling and pronunciation vary by language and script, with forms such as muddat, mudat, and müddet.

Muddat also has formal and legal uses. In statutory, contractual, and administrative contexts it denotes a fixed term, deadline, or limitation period—for instance the duration of a contract, the term allowed for an appeal, or the period of prescription for legal claims. In Ottoman and modern Turkish legal terminology, müddet is commonly used for deadlines and terms.

Related concepts include duration, deadline, tenure, and statute of limitations. Because the word is a general temporal term rather than a technical concept tied to a single legal system, its precise meaning depends on context, language, and local usage.