mlwwen ملوّن

Moroccan Darija · adjective

“mlwwen” (ملوّن) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning colorful, multicolored.

Meanings

1. colorful, multicolored
2. in color (photo, image)

Usage

Mlwwen describes things that have several bright colors: clothes, fabrics, drawings, decorations. It agrees in gender and number: mlwwna in the feminine, mlwwnin in the plural. It is used mainly in the literal sense and rarely figuratively. It goes after the noun, with the article if the noun is definite: t-tricot l-mlwwen, "the colorful T-shirt". For a specific color, use the color name directly (7mer, zre9…). The word is formed from lwen, "color". Mind the arabizi spelling: the doubled w is often written ww, but it is also found simplified.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mlwwen” but also “mlwen”, “mlwwn”, “mlouwen” and “mloun”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “mlwwen” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “colored, of color”; “in color (print, photo)”: mlawen in Tunisian.