imam

See also: Imam, imám, and imâm

Languages (20)

English

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Albanian • Azerbaijani • Catalan • Danish • Dutch • French • Indonesian • Italian • Latin • Polish • Romanian • Serbo-Croatian • Slovene • Spanish • Swahili • Swedish • Tagalog • Turkish • Zazaki

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Page categories

English

Alternative forms

• imaum, iman (both archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈiːmɑːm/, /ɪˈmɑːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːm

Noun

imam (plural imams)

2. (Islam) One who leads the salat prayers in a mosque.
   • 1901, John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp:

     Now it chanced that in one of the mosques was an Imam. (footnote: The person specially appointed to lead the prayers of the congregation and paid out of the endowed revenues of the mosque to which he is attached)

   • 2001 May 10, London Review of Books:

     But then there's a Christian cleric and an imam on each of the country's three regional censorship boards, in Kaduna, Lagos and Onitsha, although more than one producer told me that the brown envelope worked the same magic here as in any other Nigerian Government department.

   • 2004 October 7, London Review of Books, page 3:

     In the 1980s, roughly six hundred young Algerian men, many of them protégés of Muslim Brothers from Egypt and Wahhabi imams from Saudi Arabia, went to Afghanistan to join the anti-Soviet jihad.

   • 2007 April 10, Howard Blum, “Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 April 2023, retrieved 18 September 2015:

     Sheik Mohammad Seyed Tantawi, Egypt’s highest-ranking imam, led the prayers over the coffin, covered with an Egyptian flag.

   • 2021 January 13, Bethan McKernan, “Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 August 2025:

     The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.

3. (usually capitalized) A Shi'ite Muslim leader descended from the prophet Muhammad and functioning as his spiritual successor.

   Hypernym: cleric

   1. (Twelver Shi'ism) One of the Twelve imams, descendants of Muhammad from the seventh to ninth centuries CE who lived exemplary lives.

Derived terms

• imamate
• imam bayildi
• imamic
• imamship

Translations

Muslim leader

• Afrikaans: imam, imaam
• Albanian: imam (sq) m
• Amharic: ኢማም (ʾimam)
• Arabic: إِمَام m (ʔimām)
• Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܐܝܡܡ m

• Armenian: իմամ (hy) (imam)
• Azerbaijani: imam

  Cyrillic: има́м

• Bashkir: имам (imam)
• Belarusian: іма́м m (imám)
• Bengali: ইমাম (bn) (imam)
• Bulgarian: има́м (bg) m (imám)
• Catalan: imam m
• Chechen: имам (imam)
• Chinese:

  Dungan: ахун (ahun)

  Mandarin: 伊瑪目 / 伊玛目 (zh) (yīmǎmù), 教長 / 教长 (zh) (jiāozhǎng, jiàozhǎng), 阿訇 (zh) (āhōng) (used by Hui Muslims)

• Crimean Tatar: imam
• Czech: imám (cs) m
• Danish: imam c
• Dhivehi: އިމާމް (imām̊)
• Dutch: imam (nl) m
• Esperanto: imamo
• Estonian: imaam
• Finnish: imaami (fi)
• French: imam (fr) m
• Georgian: იმამი (imami)
• German: Imam (de) m
• Greek: ιμάμης (el) m (imámis)
• Hausa: liman
• Hebrew: אִימָאם m (imám)
• Hindi: इमाम m (imām)
• Hungarian: imám (hu)
• Indonesian: imam (id)
• Iranun: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: iomám m
• Italian: imam (it) m
• Japanese: イマーム (ja) (imāmu)
• Kazakh: имам (ıymam)
• Khmer: អ៊ីម៉ាម (ʼiimaam)
• Korean: 이맘 (ko) (imam)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: mela (ku)

  Central Kurdish: مەلا (mela), پێشنوێژ (pêşinwêj)

• Kyrgyz: имам (ky) (imam)
• Latvian: imāms m
• Lithuanian: imamas (lt) m
• Macedonian: и́мам m (ímam)
• Maguindanao: please add this translation if you can
• Malay: imam (ms)
• Malayalam: ഇമാം (ml) (imāṁ)
• Maranao: imam
• Minangkabau: imam (min)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: imam m

• Pashto: امام (ps) m (emām)
• Persian:

  Dari: اِمَام (imām), آخُونْد (āxūnd)

  Iranian Persian: اِمام (emâm), آخونْد (âxund)

• Polish: imam (pl) m
• Portuguese: imã (pt) m, imame (pt) m
• Rohingya: imam
• Romanian: imam (ro) m
• Russian: има́м (ru) m (imám)
• Salar: aqunbo, aqun
• Samogitian: imams m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ѝма̄м m

  Latin: ìmām (sh) m

• Spanish: imán (es) m
• Swahili: imamu (sw)
• Swedish: imam (sv) c
• Sylheti: ꠁꠝꠣꠝ (imam)
• Tajik: имом (tg) (imom), охунд (oxund)
• Tamil: இமாம் (ta) (imām)
• Tatar: имам (tt) (imam)
• Telugu: ఇమామ్ (imām)
• Thai: อิหม่าม (th) (ì-màam)
• Tigrinya: ኢማም (ʾimam)
• Turkish: imam (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: امام (imam)

• Turkmen: imam
• Ukrainian: іма́м m (imám)
• Urdu: اِمام (ur) m (imām), آخُونْد (ur) m (āxūnd)
• Uyghur: ئىمام (imam), ئاخۇن (axun)
• Uzbek: imom (uz), oxund (uz)
• Welsh: imâm m
• Yiddish: אימאַם m (imam)
• Yoruba: lèmọ́mù, ìmáàmù, afaa, alufaa

Anagrams

• I'mma, Imma, Mami, imma, maim, mami

Albanian

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish امام (imam), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iˈmam/

Noun

imam m (plural imamë, definite imami, definite plural imamët)

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

Declension of imam

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	imam	imami	imamë	imamët
accusative		imamin
dative	imami	imamit	imamëve	imamëve
ablative			imamësh

Azerbaijani

Other scripts

Cyrillic		имам
Arabic	classical sp	امام
	modern Iranian sp	ایمام

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Baku):

  (file)

Noun

imam (definite accusative imamı, plural imamlar)

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

Declension of imam

	singular	plural
nominative	imam	imamlar
definite accusative	imamı	imamları
dative	imama	imamlara
locative	imamda	imamlarda
ablative	imamdan	imamlardan
definite genitive	imamın	imamların

Possessive forms of imam

	nominative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	imamım	imamlarım
sənin (“your”)	imamın	imamların
onun (“his/her/its”)	imamı	imamları
bizim (“our”)	imamımız	imamlarımız
sizin (“your”)	imamınız	imamlarınız
onların (“their”)	imamı or imamları	imamları
	accusative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	imamımı	imamlarımı
sənin (“your”)	imamını	imamlarını
onun (“his/her/its”)	imamını	imamlarını
bizim (“our”)	imamımızı	imamlarımızı
sizin (“your”)	imamınızı	imamlarınızı
onların (“their”)	imamını or imamlarını	imamlarını
	dative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	imamıma	imamlarıma
sənin (“your”)	imamına	imamlarına
onun (“his/her/its”)	imamına	imamlarına
bizim (“our”)	imamımıza	imamlarımıza
sizin (“your”)	imamınıza	imamlarınıza
onların (“their”)	imamına or imamlarına	imamlarına
	locative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	imamımda	imamlarımda
sənin (“your”)	imamında	imamlarında
onun (“his/her/its”)	imamında	imamlarında
bizim (“our”)	imamımızda	imamlarımızda
sizin (“your”)	imamınızda	imamlarınızda
onların (“their”)	imamında or imamlarında	imamlarında
	ablative
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	imamımdan	imamlarımdan
sənin (“your”)	imamından	imamlarından
onun (“his/her/its”)	imamından	imamlarından
bizim (“our”)	imamımızdan	imamlarımızdan
sizin (“your”)	imamınızdan	imamlarınızdan
onların (“their”)	imamından or imamlarından	imamlarından
	genitive
	singular	plural
mənim (“my”)	imamımın	imamlarımın
sənin (“your”)	imamının	imamlarının
onun (“his/her/its”)	imamının	imamlarının
bizim (“our”)	imamımızın	imamlarımızın
sizin (“your”)	imamınızın	imamlarınızın
onların (“their”)	imamının or imamlarının	imamlarının

Catalan

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Balearic, Central, Valencia, Northwestern) [iˈmam]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Noun

imam m (plural imams)

1. (Islam) imam

Further reading

• “imam”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Danish

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Noun

imam c (singular definite imamen, plural indefinite imamer)

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

Declension of imam

common gender	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	imam	imamen	imamer	imamerne
genitive	imams	imamens	imamers	imamernes

References

• “imam” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

imam m (plural imams, diminutive imampje n)

1. (Islam) imam

French

Alternative forms

• imâm

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.mam/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

Noun

imam m or f by sense (plural imams)

1. imam

Further reading

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

Indonesian

Etymology

Inherited from Malay امام (imam), from Arabic إمام (ʔimām, “leader, imam”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.mam/
• Hyphenation: i‧mam

Noun

imam (plural imam-imam)

1. (Islam) imam
2. (Catholicism) priest

   Synonyms: padri, pastor, rama

3. (rare) leader

   Synonyms: kepala, pemimpin, penghulu

Derived terms

• diimami
• diimamkan
• keimaman
• mengimami
• mengimamkan
• pengimaman

• imam agung
• imam biarawan
• imam diosesan

Related terms

• imamat

Further reading

• “imam”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Italian

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iˈmam/
• Rhymes: -am
• Hyphenation: i‧màm

Noun

imam m (invariable)

1. (Islam) imam

   Synonyms: iman, imano

Anagrams

• Imma, mima

Latin

Adjective

īmam

1. accusative feminine singular of īmus

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈi.mam/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -imam
• Syllabification: i‧mam

Etymology 1

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Noun

imam m pers

1. (Islam) imam (“a Shi'ite Muslim leader”)

Declension

Declension of imam

	singular	plural
nominative	imam	imamowie
genitive	imama	imamów
dative	imamowi	imamom
accusative	imama	imamów
instrumental	imamem	imamami
locative	imamie	imamach
vocative	imamie	imamowie

Related terms

• imamita
• imamizm

See also

• mufti

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

imam

1. first-person singular present of imać

Further reading

• “imam”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “imam”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish امام (“imam”), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.ˈmam/
• Rhymes: -am
• Hyphenation: i‧mam

Noun

imam m (plural imami)

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	imam	imamul	imami	imamii
genitive-dative	imam	imamului	imami	imamilor
vocative	imamule		imamilor

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish امام (imam), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Noun

ìmām m anim (Cyrillic spelling ѝма̄м)

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

Declension of imam

	singular	plural
nominative	ìmām	imami
genitive	imáma	imama
dative	imamu	imamima
accusative	imama	imame
vocative	imame	imami
locative	imamu	imamima
instrumental	imamom	imamima

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

imam (Cyrillic spelling имам)

1. first-person singular present of imati (I have)

Slovene

Verb

imam

1. first-person singular present of imeti

Spanish

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /iˈmam/ [iˈmãm]
  • Rhymes: -am
  • Syllabification: i‧mam
• IPA^(key): /iˈman/ [iˈmãn]
  • Rhymes: -an

Noun

imam m (plural imames)

1. (Islam) imam

Further reading

• “imam”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swahili

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Noun

imam class IX (plural imam class X)

1. alternative form of imamu

Swedish

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

Noun

imam c

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

Declension of imam

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	imam	imams
	definite	imamen	imamens
plural	indefinite	imamer	imamers
	definite	imamerna	imamernas

References

• “imam”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “imam”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “imam”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Anagrams

• imma, mima

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• iman

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”), possibly through English or Philippine languages spoken mostly by Muslims.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog)
  • IPA^(key): /ʔiˈmam/ [ʔɪˈmam] (prescriptive from Arabic)
    • Rhymes: -am
  • IPA^(key): /ˈʔimam/ [ˈʔiː.mɐm]
    • Rhymes: -imam
• Syllabification: i‧mam

Noun

imám or imam (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜋᜋ᜔) (Islam, theology)

1. imam

See also

• binyag
• heke
• katib
• siyak

References

• “imam”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018

Anagrams

• mami

Turkish

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish امام (imam), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Noun

imam (definite accusative imamı, plural imamlar)

1. (Islam) imam

Declension

Declension of imam

singular plural nominative imam imamlar definite accusative imamı imamları dative imama imamlara locative imamda imamlarda ablative imamdan imamlardan genitive imamın imamların Possessive forms nominative singular plural 1st singular imamım imamlarım 2nd singular imamın imamların 3rd singular imamı imamları 1st plural imamımız imamlarımız 2nd plural imamınız imamlarınız 3rd plural imamları imamları definite accusative singular plural 1st singular imamımı imamlarımı 2nd singular imamını imamlarını 3rd singular imamını imamlarını 1st plural imamımızı imamlarımızı 2nd plural imamınızı imamlarınızı 3rd plural imamlarını imamlarını dative singular plural 1st singular imamıma imamlarıma 2nd singular imamına imamlarına 3rd singular imamına imamlarına 1st plural imamımıza imamlarımıza 2nd plural imamınıza imamlarınıza 3rd plural imamlarına imamlarına locative singular plural 1st singular imamımda imamlarımda 2nd singular imamında imamlarında 3rd singular imamında imamlarında 1st plural imamımızda imamlarımızda 2nd plural imamınızda imamlarınızda 3rd plural imamlarında imamlarında ablative singular plural 1st singular imamımdan imamlarımdan 2nd singular imamından imamlarından 3rd singular imamından imamlarından 1st plural imamımızdan imamlarımızdan 2nd plural imamınızdan imamlarınızdan 3rd plural imamlarından imamlarından genitive singular plural 1st singular imamımın imamlarımın 2nd singular imamının imamlarının 3rd singular imamının imamlarının 1st plural imamımızın imamlarımızın 2nd plural imamınızın imamlarınızın 3rd plural imamlarının imamlarının Predicative forms singular plural 1st singular imamım imamlarım 2nd singular imamsın imamlarsın 3rd singular imam imamdır imamlar imamlardır 1st plural imamız imamlarız 2nd plural imamsınız imamlarsınız 3rd plural imamlar imamlardır

Zazaki

Etymology

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [iˈmɑm]
• Hyphenation: i‧mam

Noun

imam m

1. (Islam) imam
2. (literary) leader