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fatha

UK /fɑːt.hɑ/noun

fatha is a noun meaning “In Arabic script, the vowel point for a, appearing as a diagonal line placed above a letter ( ـَ ) and designating a short a /a/. If the Arabic…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-A-T-H-A and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 44 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of fatha is fathas.

What does fatha mean?

noun

  1. 1

    In Arabic script, the vowel point for a, appearing as a diagonal line placed above a letter ( ـَ ) and designating a short a /a/. If the Arabic letters ا (أَلِف (ʔalif)) or ى (أَلِف مَقْصُورَة (ʔalif maqṣūra)) immediately follow, it indicates a long ā /aː/.

  2. 2

    The vowel designated by this mark.

  3. 3

    father

noun

as fatHa
  1. 1

    Alternative form of fatha.

noun

as fatḥa
  1. 1

    Alternative form of fatha.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce fatha?

  • UK /fɑːt.hɑ/

As a noun (“father”): /fæðæ/.

Fatha has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fatha.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fatha

  • fathas plural
  • fatḥa

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is fatha?

Fatha appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Fatha in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense in the Arabic script, the vowel point for "a" (fatḥa):

LanguageWords
Frenchfatha
GermanFatha

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fatha come from?

Borrowed from Arabic فَتْحَة (fatḥa, “an opening”), instance noun of the verb فَتَحَ (fataḥa, “to open”). Refers to the mouth position when pronouncing the /a/ vowel. Doublet of fathe, patach, and ptaha, denoting the open vowel in the Hebrew and Syriac scripts.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).