Madda (مَدّة) in Arabic
Lengthens the preceding alif — a long "ā" with a glottal onset.
Last updated: May 2026
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Madda — madda
Long "ā" — like the "a" in English "father", but doubled in duration. Often follows a glottal stop (hamza).
- Position
- above (combining)
- Family
- special
- Unicode
- U+0653
- Keyboard
- Shift + N (combines with alif to produce آ)
What does Madda mean?
Madda (literally "extension") is a small tilde-like mark drawn above an alif (ا) to indicate either a glottal-stop + long-vowel combination (hamza + alif) or a long "ā" sound that resists normal collision rules. The most common form, آ, is read "ʾā" — a long "a" with a glottal onset.
Madda almost always appears on alif at the start of a word (Quranic Arabic uses it elsewhere too). Common words: آن "now / present time", آمَنَ "he believed", آلَة "tool / instrument", قُرْآن "Quran". It avoids the ugly double-hamza spelling ءا.
How to type Madda on Arabic keyboard
Shortcut on Arabic 101: Shift + N (combines with alif to produce آ)
Typing order: type the base letter first, then hold Shift and press the diacritic key. Most Arabic input requires this letter-then-diacritic sequence — typing the diacritic first will produce nothing or a disconnected mark.
Example: to type آ, press the base letter key, then Shift + N (combines with alif to produce آ).
Example words with Madda
Practice typing Madda
Knowing the shortcut is one thing — building the muscle memory is another. Our diacritics drills weave fatha, kasra, damma, shadda, sukun, and the tanween marks into real words and full sentences.
Frequently asked questions
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How do I type madda on the Arabic keyboard?
On the Arabic 101 keyboard layout, the alif-with-madda character (آ) is most easily typed as a single composed character: press Shift + N. You can also type a bare alif (ا) followed by the combining madda mark (Shift + Y on some layouts), but most fonts and OSes render the composed آ more reliably.
Why does madda only appear on alif?
Madda historically replaces a hamza-alif sequence (ءا). When two alifs would otherwise collide — for example a hamzated alif followed by a long alif — Arabic orthography fuses them into a single alif with a madda above. It serves as a visual shortcut and a pronunciation cue (long "ā" after a glottal stop).
Does the Quran use madda differently from modern Arabic?
Yes. In Quranic tajweed, the madda mark also indicates extended vocal prolongation (madd) of two, four, or six beats depending on the rule. Modern non-Quranic Arabic uses madda only as a spelling convention for the hamza+alif fusion; it does not encode prolongation length.
Related diacritics
Or see the full Arabic diacritics guide.