# فوج
## Arabic
### Alternative forms

* فَيْج (fayj) — obsolete

### Etymology

From earlier فَيْج (fayj, “legman, courier; company”), borrowed from Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (pdk' /⁠payg⁠/, “foot-soldier, foot-walker, courier”) (Classical Persian پیگ (payg)).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fawd͡ʒ/

### Noun

فَوْج • (fawj) m (plural أَفْوَاج (ʔafwāj))
* company, group, crowd, drove, swarm
** 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 110:2:وَرَأَيْتَ ٱلنَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ ٱللّٰهِ أَفْوَاجًاwa-raʔayta n-nāsa yadḵulūna fī dīni llāhi ʔafwājanAnd you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes
* (military) cohort, battalion, regiment (a military unit of size varying by state)
* (mining) shift, layer, stratum (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

#### Derived terms

* أَفَاجَ (ʔafāja, “to congregate”)

#### Descendants

* → Classical Persian: فَوْج (fawj)
** → Bengali: ফৌজ (fouj)
** → Pashto: فوځ (fawź), پوځ (pawź)
** → Old Gujarati: फोज (phoja)
*** Gujarati: ફોજ (phoj)
*** Marwari: फौज (phauj)
** → Hindustani:
    Devanagari script: फ़ौज (fauj)
    Arabic script: فوج (fauj)
** → Kannada: ಫೌಜು (phauju)
** → Marathi: फौज (phauj)
** → Punjabi:
    Gurmukhi script: ਫ਼ੌਜ (fauj)
    Shahmukhi script: فوج (fauj)

### References

* “فوج” in Almaany
* Freytag, Georg (1835) “فوج”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 3, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 379
* Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “فوج”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎ (in French), volume 2, Paris: Maisonneuve et C$^{ie}$, page 643
* Lane, Edward William (1863) “فوج”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 2455
* Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “فوج”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎ (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 986

## Persian
### Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَوْج (fawj), from فَيْج (fayj), borrowed from Middle Persian pdk'.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [fawd͡ʒ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [fäwd͡ʒ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [fäwd͡ʒ]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [fäwd͡ʒ]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [fäwd͡ʒ̥]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [fowd͡ʒ̥]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [fäwd͡ʒ]

### Noun

| Dari | فوج |
| Iranian Persian | فوج |
| Tajik | фавҷ |
فوج • (fowj)
* (archaic) group, company
* (archaic) a regiment
    Synonyms: هنگ (hang), رژیمان (režimân)

#### Descendants

* → Bengali: ফৌজ (fouj)
* → Pashto: فوځ (fawź), پوځ (pawź)
* → Old Gujarati: फोज (phoja)
** Gujarati: ફોજ (phoj)
** Marwari: फौज (phauj)
* → Hindustani:
    Devanagari script: फ़ौज (fauj)
    Arabic script: فوج (fauj)
* → Kannada: ಫೌಜು (phauju)
* → Marathi: फौज (phauj)
* → Punjabi:
    Gurmukhi script: ਫ਼ੌਜ (fauj)
    Shahmukhi script: فوج (fauj)

## Urdu
### Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian فَوْج (fawj), borrowed from Arabic فَوْج (fawj), from فَيْج (fayj), borrowed from Middle Persian pdk'. First attested in c. 1503 as Middle Hindi فوج (fvj /⁠fauj⁠/).

### Pronunciation

* (Standard Urdu) IPA: /fɔːd͡ʒ/
* Rhymes: -ɔːd͡ʒ

### Noun

فَوج • (fauj) f (formal plural اَفْواج (afvāj), Hindi spelling फ़ौज)
* army (military; force)
    Synonym: سینا (senā)
* (figuratively) a horde (both in terms of items or people).

#### Derived terms

* فوجدار (faujdār)
* فوجداری (faujdārī)
* فوجی (faujī, “soldier”)

### References

* ↑ “فوج”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.

### Further reading

* “فوج”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
* Fallon, Platts, Qureshi, Shakespear (2024) “فوج”, in Digital Dictionaries of South Asia [Combined Urdu Dictionaries]