I grew up speaking Arabic but never really knew my own language
I grew up speaking Arabic every day but I never really knew the language. I'd use words without understanding where they came from, what they carried, how old they were. The classical dictionaries had all the answers but they felt like they belonged to scholars, not to someone like me. So I made something for myself — an app called Kalima (كلمة).
It gives you one word at a time, with its meaning straight from the classical dictionaries — Lisan al-Arab, Al-Sihah, Maqayis al-Lugha. You can explore a word's root and see all the words that share it, and suddenly you realize words you thought had nothing in common are actually family. You can trace a word back across Semitic languages — Akkadian, Syriac, Ugaritic, Aramaic — and see it written in the original ancient scripts. There's also a writing pad where you write in Arabic and it suggests synonyms and rhymes as you go.
The whole thing works offline, no account needed, no ads. It's free on iOS and Android. I just wanted to feel closer to my language, and I hope it does the same for someone else.
Android - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elmokhtbr.kalima
iOS - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kalima-كلمة/id6783453396