nafas

Nafas is a noun meaning breath or respiration in Arabic and in several languages that borrow from Arabic. The word is traditionally linked to the root N-F-S, which carries associations with breathing and life. In usage, it can refer to a single breath as well as the broader act of breathing.

In Indonesian and Malay, nafas also means breath and is used in everyday language. The related verb bernapas or bernafas describes the act of breathing, while pernapasan is the formal term for respiration in medical or scientific contexts. In Urdu and Persian, نفس is read as nafas and similarly denotes breath; it frequently appears in poetry, religious discourse, and discussions of life and vitality.

In medical and physiological contexts, respiration is the process of inhaling and exhaling. While nafas can mean a breath in everyday speech, more formal terminology such as respiration or pernapasan is used in clinical and scientific settings to describe the mechanism, rate, and pattern of breathing.

Culturally and literarily, nafas often carries metaphorical meanings related to life, spirit, or the delicate balance of existence. The term has multiple cognates across languages that share the same lexical field, such as nefes in Turkish, reflecting a common Indo-Arabic linguistic heritage.

Overall, nafas functions as a basic, cross-lert term for breath in several languages, with usage spanning everyday speech, literature, and formal science.