kafir

See also: kâfir

English

Alternative forms

• kâfir, kāfir

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “denier, unbeliever”). Doublet of kaffir.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: käʹfîr, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːfɪə/
• (General American) enPR: käʹfîr, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːfɪɹ/

Noun

kafir (countable and uncountable, plural kuffar or kafirs)

1. (Islam, countable, offensive, religious slur, politics) A disbeliever, a denier: someone who rejects or disbelieves in Allah or the tenets of Islam; or more broadly any non-Muslim.

   Antonym: Muslim

   • 2024 August 21, “Investigation Into Bangladeshi Preacher Amir Hamza’s Sermon in Singapore on 9 August 2024”, in Ministry of Home Affairs (Singapore)‎^[4]:

     In his sermon, Amir Hamza espoused extremist and segregationist views. He inferred that non-Muslims are “kafir” (infidels).

2. (uncountable) Short for kafir corn.
   • 1914, Omar Orlando Churchill, Forage and Silage Crops for Oklahoma, page 10:

     Kafir makes better forage than the duras.

   • 1918, Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, page 568:

     Kafir is confined practically to the Southwestern States where, owing to its drought resistant character, it has become an important crop.

Usage notes

• Some people use the term to refer to any non-Muslim, but others consider this an error. The term is sometimes derogatory.

Derived terms

• kafirize
• kafirness
• Kafirism

Related terms

• kufr

Translations

infidel, non-Muslim

• Albanian: qafir m
• Arabic: كَافِر m (kāfir)
• Armenian: գյավուր (hy) (gyavur)
• Azerbaijani: kafir (az), gavur (az)
• Bashkir: кафыр (kafır)
• Bengali: কাফির (kaphir)
• Bulgarian: гяу́р (bg) m (gjaúr)
• Chinese:

  Dungan: кафыр (kafɨr)

  Mandarin: 卡菲勒 (kǎfēilè), 卡菲爾／卡菲尔 (kǎfēi'ěr)

• Czech: káfir (cs) m
• Dongxiang: kafeir m
• Finnish: kafiiri (fi)
• French: kâfir (fr) m, kafir (fr) m
• Georgian: გიაური (giauri)
• German: Kafir (de) m
• Hausa: kāfìr̃ī
• Hindi: काफ़िर m (kāfir), काफिर (hi) m (kāphir), गब्र (hi) m (gabra)
• Indonesian: kafir (id)
• Japanese: カーフィル (kāfiru)
• Kazakh: кәпір (käpır)
• Korean: 카피르 (kapireu)
• Kyrgyz: каапыр (ky) (kaapır)
• Macedonian: ќафир m (ḱafir),ѓаур m (ǵaur)
• Malay: kafir
• Malayalam: കാഫിർ (ml) (kāphiṟ), കാഫിറ് (kāphiṟŭ)
• Maore Comorian: kafiri
• Nepali: काफिर (ne) (kāphira)
• Nogai: каьпир (käpir)
• Nupe: káfìri
• Pashto: کافر (ps) (kāfér)
• Persian: کافر (fa) (kâfer), گبر (fa) (gabr)
• Polish: kafir
• Portuguese: cafre (pt) m or f
• Rohingya: kafér
• Russian: ка́фи́р (ru) m (káfír), кя́фи́р (ru) m (kjáfír), гяу́р (ru) m (gjaúr)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кафир m

  Latin: kafir m

• Slovak: káfir m
• Spanish: cafre (es) m or f
• Swahili: kafiri (sw) class ma
• Tajik: кофир (kofir), габр (gabr)
• Tamil: காஃபிர் (kāfir)
• Tatar: көфер (köfer), көферлек (köferlek)
• Thai: กาเฟร, กาฟิร
• Turkish: kâfir (tr), gâvur (tr) (derogatory)
• Turkmen: kapyr, kapyrlyk
• Ukrainian: кафі́р m (kafír), кяфі́р m (kjafír)
• Urdu: کافر m (kāfir)
• Uyghur: كاپىر (kapir)
• Uzbek: kofir (uz), gʻayridin (uz)
• Yoruba: kèfèrí

See also

• kufr
• takfir
• kaffir
• kefir

Anagrams

• fakir, farik

French

Noun

kafir m or f by sense (plural kafirs)

1. Alternative form of kâfir

Further reading

• “kafir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay kafir, from Classical Malay kafir (“infidel”), from Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “denier, unbeliever”).

• The sense “non-Jew” is a semantic loan from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, “nation”) and semantic loan from Ancient Greek ἐθνικός (ethnikós).
• The sense “non-Christian” is a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ῥακά (rhaká).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈka.fɪr]
• Hyphenation: ka‧fir

Noun

kafir (first-person possessive kafirku, second-person possessive kafirmu, third-person possessive kafirnya)

1. unbeliever, non-believer, infidel
   1. (Islam) a kafir, a disbeliever, a denier: someone who denies the truths from Allah; or more broadly any non-Muslim.
   2. (Christianity) A non-Christian.
   3. (Christianity, Jewish) a gentile, a non-Jew

Usage notes

This term is sometimes derogatory.

Derived terms

• kekafiran
• mengafirkan
• pengafir
• pengafiran

 

Further reading

• “kafir” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Malay

Etymology

From Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “denier, unbeliever”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ka.fe(r)]
• Rhymes: -fir, -ir
• Hyphenation: ka‧fir

Noun

kafir (Jawi spelling کافير, plural kafir-kafir)

1. (Islam, offensive, religious slur) A kafir, a disbeliever, a denier: someone who denies the truths from Allah; or more broadly any non-Muslim.

Usage notes

• This term is considered offensive by non-Muslims.
• To avoid offence, terms such as orang bukan Islam and orang bukan Muslim, respectively meaning a person who is "non-Islam" and a person who is "non-Muslim", are often used instead.

Affixations

• kafir-mengkafirkan
• kafirkan (“to consider someone a kafir”)

 

Compounds

• kafir harbi
• kafir Majusi
• kafir muahad
• kafir zimmi

 

Further reading

• “kafir” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.fir/
• Rhymes: -afir
• Syllabification: ka‧fir

Noun

kafir m pers

1. (Islam) kafir

Declension

Declension of kafir

	singular	plural
nominative	kafir	kafirzy/kafiry (deprecative)
genitive	kafira	kafirów
dative	kafirowi	kafirom
accusative	kafira	kafirów
instrumental	kafirem	kafirami
locative	kafirze	kafirach
vocative	kafirze	kafirzy

Further reading

• kafir in Polish dictionaries at PWN