mufrad

Mufrad is an Arabic linguistic term meaning "singular" or "single." It is used to designate a word that exists as a single, indivisible lexical item, as opposed to a phrase or a compound formed from multiple words. In traditional Arabic grammar, words are categorized by number, with mufrad representing the base singular form, alongside muthanna for the dual and jam’ for the plural. The term emphasizes that the word functions in its basic, solitary form rather than as part of a constructed expression.

Etymologically, mufrad comes from the Arabic root ف-ر-د (farad), associated with separation or being single. The word is commonly employed in grammars and dictionaries to distinguish the base form of a word from its inflected, dual, or plural manifestations. In practice, mufrad applies to nouns, adjectives, and verbs when discussing their singular, standalone form in morphological descriptions.

In usage, mufrad is a reference point for describing how a word behaves in sentences. For nouns and adjectives, information about case endings (nominative, accusative, genitive) and definiteness is given at the mufrad level and then adjusted for number. For verbs, the concept can be extended to the base form when analyzing person, number, and gender in the singular, though verbs are often discussed in terms of their aspect and mood as well.

Related terms include mutaḍṭaf and murakkab (compound), which describe phrases or word combinations, and muthanna (dual) and jam’ (plural), which mark other number categories in Arabic grammar.