Ways to say it
| Arabic | Romanization (Wiktionary) |
|---|---|
| أَلْغَى | ʔalḡā |
| أَبْطَلَ | ʔabṭala |
In Arabic, the choice of word for 'cancel' depends on what is being cancelled. Use أَلْغَى when you are cancelling an action, a scheduled event, an appointment or a subscription. Use أَبْطَلَ when you are specifically invalidating or nullifying something in a legal or formal context, such as a law, a contract or a legal document.
Which one should you use?
أَلْغَى is the standard term for cancelling an event, an appointment or a scheduled thing like a meeting or a flight. In contrast, أَبْطَلَ is used specifically for the legal or formal context of nullifying or invalidating something like a contract or a law.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Egyptian Arabic, the word قطع can be used to mean 'cancel'.
How does it change in a sentence?
For the verb أَبْطَلَ, the verbal noun is إِبْطَال. If you need to use 'canceled' or 'voided' as an adjective, use the passive participle مُلْغًى.
How do you pronounce it?
ʔalḡā
Did you know?
- While أَلْغَى is used for canceling appointments, the root لغـو originally refers to 'idle talk' or 'nonsense'.
- The word أَبْطَلَ shares a root with the word باطل, which describes something that is not only invalid but fundamentally false or void of truth.
- In many Arabic dialects, rather than using a specific verb for 'cancel', people might say 'they took it back' or 'it was removed' to describe a cancelled meeting.
Examples in context
- أعتذر لإبلاغكم بأننا بحاجة إلى إلغاء الاجتماع غدًا.I regret to inform you that we need to cancel the meeting tomorrow.
- أَلْغَى الموعد بسبب المرض.alga al-maw'id bisabab al-marad.He cancelled the appointment due to illness.
- هل أَلْغَى المدير الاجتماع؟hal alga al-mudir al-ijtima'?Did the manager cancel the meeting?
- أَلْغَى السائق الرحلة فجأة.alga al-sa'iq al-rihla faj'atan.The driver cancelled the trip suddenly.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “cancel” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
