Skip to content

daya

seasonal pond

noun DAH-yah Rare

Origin: Arabic

Also means

temporary marsh

Usage Note

daya is a borrowing from Maghrebi Arabic for a shallow depression where rainwater collects seasonally, forming a temporary pond in arid North Africa. It appears mainly in geographical and environmental writing about Morocco and Algeria. It is a low-frequency specialized term outside that context.

Examples

"La daya s'assèche en été."

Natural Translation

The seasonal pond dries up in summer.

Free starter pack

Building your French vocabulary?

Get the 100 most common French words as a free PDF — one email, no spam.

Explore French by topic