metwasset متوسط

Tunisian Derja · adjective

“metwasset” (متوسط) is an adjective in Tunisian Derja meaning medium, of middle size or value.

Meanings

1. medium, of middle size or value
2. intermediate (level)
3. Mediterranean (in bhar el metwasset)

Usage

Metwasset describes what falls in the middle: a size, a price, a grade, a level. You'll find it in shops ("qyes metwasset", medium size), at school ("mo3adel metwasset", a passing average) or to judge something as neither good nor bad. The feminine is metwassta. The register is neutral, slightly more formal than very colloquial phrasings. To call something just "okay" in the sense of "so-so", people also say "3adi" in speech. The expression "el bhar el abyedh el metwasset" refers to the Mediterranean. "ta3lim metwasset" is also used for middle school in certain contexts.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “metwasset” but also “mtwasset”, “metwaset”, “moutawasset” and “mitwasset”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “metwasset” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “average”; “intermediate”: mtwesset in Moroccan.

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “average, neither good nor bad”; “middle school”: motawasset in Algerian.