# لب
## Arabic
### Etymology

From the root ل ب ب (l b b), the noun from Proto-Semitic *libb-.
Cognate with Hebrew לב (lev) and Classical Syriac ܠܒܐ (lebbā).

### Noun

لُبّ • (lubb) m (plural لُبُوب (lubūb))
* pulp, backlog, marrow, core, heart
    Synonym: (heart) قَلْب (qalb)

#### Declension
### Noun

لُبّ • (lubb) m (plural أَلْبَاب (ʔalbāb))
* intellect, discernment

#### Declension
### Verb

لَبَّ • (labba) I (non-past يَلُبُّ (yalubbu), verbal noun لَبّ (labb))
* to stay, to bide, to persevere

#### Conjugation
### Verb

لَبَّ • (labba) I (first-person singular past لَبَبْتُ (lababtu), non-past يَلَبُّ (yalabbu), verbal noun لَبَب (labab)), first-person non-past لَبِبْتُ (labibtu)
لَبَّ • (labba) I (non-past يَلُبُّ (yalubbu), verbal noun لَبَابَة (labāba)), first-person non-past لَبُبْتُ (labubtu)
* to be intelligent, to be smart

#### Conjugation
### References

* Freytag, Georg (1837) “لب”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎ (in Latin), volume 4, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 78
* Lane, Edward William (1863) “لب”, in Arabic-English Lexicon‎, London: Williams & Norgate, page 2641
* Wehr, Hans (1979) “لب”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 1002
* Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “لب”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎ (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 1138
* Steingass, Francis Joseph (1884) “لب”, in The Student's Arabic–English Dictionary‎, London: W.H. Allen, page 906

## Egyptian Arabic
### Etymology

From Arabic لب.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [leb], /ˈleb(b)/

### Noun

لب • (lebb) m pl
* kernels (specifically seed kernels)

#### Usage notes

The singular is لبة (lebba) f, s

#### Descendants

* → Greek: λίμπ (límp) (Egyptiot Dialect)

## Khalaj
### Noun

لَب (ləb) (definite accusative لَبی, plural لَبلَر)
* Arabic spelling of ləb (“lip”)

#### Declension
## Ottoman Turkish
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Persian لب (lab, “lip”).

#### Noun

لب • (leb)
* lip, either of the two fleshy protrusions around the opening of the mouth
    Synonyms: شفه (şefe), طوداق (dudak)
* (by extension) edge, margin, border of a thing
    Synonyms: قیی (kıyı), كنار (kenar)

##### Descendants

* Turkish: leb

#### Further reading

* Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “leb”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 2948
* Kélékian, Diran (1911) “لب”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎, Constantinople: Mihran, page 1074
* Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Labium”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎, Vienna, column 896
* Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “لب”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎, Vienna, column 4141
* Redhouse, James W. (1890) “لب”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1625

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Arabic لُبّ (lubb, “pith, kernel”).

#### Noun

لب • (lubb) (plural لبوب)
* kernel, pith, marrow, essence
    Synonyms: اوز (öz), مخ (muh), مغز (mağz)

#### Further reading

* Kélékian, Diran (1911) “لب”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎, Constantinople: Mihran, page 1074
* Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Nucleus”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎, Vienna, column 1156
* Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “لب”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎, Vienna, column 4142
* Redhouse, James W. (1890) “لب”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1625

## Persian

Picture dictionary :
لب
جمجمه
مغز
چشم
لب
بینی
دهان
چانه
فک
گوش
گیجگاه
گردن :

### Alternative forms

* لو (low) (dialectal, Dashtestan)

### Etymology

From Proto-Iranian *lab- / *lap-, from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“lip, to lick”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Persian) IPA: [laβ]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [läb]
* (Dari, formal) IPA: [läb]
** (Kabuli) IPA: [läb]
** (Hazaragi) IPA: [läb̥]
* (Iran, formal) IPA: [læb̥]
* (Tajik, formal) IPA: [läb]

### Noun

لب • (lab) (plural لبان (labân) or لب‌ها (lab-hâ))
* (anatomy) lip
    اگه گفتی دوستت دارم فقط بازی لب‌هات بود.Age gofti duset dâram faqat bâziye labhât bud.(colloquial) If (when) you said you love me, you weren't serious. (Literally: it was only your lip play.)
* edge
    Synonym: کنار (kenâr)

#### Related terms

* لبی (labi)

#### Descendants

* → Khalaj: ləb

### References

* Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar (1931–) “لب”, in Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute, editors, Dehkhoda Dictionary (in Persian), Tehran: University of Tehran Press
* Edelʹman, D. I. (2015) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Iranian Languages] (in Russian), volume 5, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, page 68

## Urdu
### Etymology

* PIE word
* *leb-
Borrowed from Classical Persian لَب (lab). First attested in c. 1611 as Middle Hindi لب (lb /⁠lab⁠/).

### Pronunciation

* (Standard Urdu) IPA: /ləb/
* Rhymes: -əb

### Noun

لَب • (lab) m (Hindi spelling लब)
* (anatomy) lip
    Synonym: ہون٘ٹ (hõṭ)
* upper lip, edge of the lip
* edge; shore; margin (ie. of a river, coast etc.)

#### Declension
### References

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

### Further reading

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