khyal خيال

Moroccan Darija · noun

“khyal” (خيال) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning silhouette, glimpsed shadow.

Meanings

1. silhouette, glimpsed shadow
2. imagination
3. ghost, apparition

Usage

In darija, khyal first denotes a shape that is hard to make out: a shadow, a silhouette glimpsed from afar or in the dark. For example, ban liya chi khyal ("I saw a silhouette"). The word can also mean a frightening apparition, close to a ghost. The sense of "imagination" or "fiction" comes from Standard Arabic. It is used mostly in a more formal register or about films and novels. Note: in speech it is generally pronounced khyal, with no vowel after the kh, whereas the spelling khayal follows Standard Arabic.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khyal” but also “khayal”, “5yal”, “5ayal” and “khial”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.

Type “khyal” on the Arabic keyboard

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “imagination, fiction”; “image or silhouette of someone”: khyal in Algerian.

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “imagination”; “fiction, unreal thing”: 5ayel in Tunisian.