فوج

• فَيْج (fayj) — obsolete

From earlier فَيْج (fayj, “legman, courier; company”), borrowed from Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (pdk' /⁠payg⁠/, “foot-soldier, foot-walker, courier”) (Classical Persian پیگ (payg)).

• IPA^(key): /fawd͡ʒ/

فَوْج • (fawj) m (plural أَفْوَاج (ʔafwāj))

1. company, group, crowd, drove, swarm
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 110:2:

     وَرَأَيْتَ ٱلنَّاسَ يَدْخُلُونَ فِي دِينِ ٱللّٰهِ أَفْوَاجًا

     wa-raʔayta n-nāsa yadḵulūna fī dīni llāhi ʔafwājan

     And you see the people entering into the religion of Allah in multitudes

2. (military) cohort, battalion, regiment (a military unit of size varying by state)
3. (mining) shift, layer, stratum (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

• أَفَاجَ (ʔafāja, “to congregate”)

• → Classical Persian: فَوْج (fawj)
  • → Bengali: ফৌজ (fouj)
  • → Pashto: فوځ (fawź), پوځ (pawź)
  • → Old Gujarati: फोज (phoja)
    • Gujarati: ફોજ (phoj)
    • Marwari: फौज (phauj)
  • → Hindustani:

    Devanagari script: फ़ौज (fauj)

    Arabic script: فوج (fauj)

  • → Kannada: ಫೌಜು (phauju)
  • → Marathi: फौज (phauj)
  • → Punjabi:

    Gurmukhi script: ਫ਼ੌਜ (fauj)

    Shahmukhi script: فوج (fauj)

• “فوج” in Almaany
• Freytag, Georg (1835) “فوج”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[1] (in Latin), volume 3, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 379
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “فوج”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎^[2] (in French), volume 2, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 643
• Lane, Edward William (1863-1893) “فوج”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, page 2455.
• Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “فوج”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎^[3] (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 986

Borrowed from Arabic فَوْج (fawj), from فَيْج (fayj), borrowed from Middle Persian pdk'. Doublet of پیک (peyk).

فوج • (fowj)

1. (archaic) group, company
2. (archaic) a regiment

   Synonyms: هنگ (hang), رژیمان (režimân)

• → Bengali: ফৌজ (fouj)
• → Pashto: فوځ (fawź), پوځ (pawź)
• → Old Gujarati: फोज (phoja)
  • Gujarati: ફોજ (phoj)
  • Marwari: फौज (phauj)
• → Hindustani:

  Devanagari script: फ़ौज (fauj)

  Arabic script: فوج (fauj)

• → Kannada: ಫೌಜು (phauju)
• → Marathi: फौज (phauj)
• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਫ਼ੌਜ (fauj)

  Shahmukhi script: فوج (fauj)

Borrowed from Classical Persian فَوْج (fawj), borrowed from Arabic فَوْج (fawj), from فَيْج (fayj), borrowed from Middle Persian pdk'. First attested in c. 1503 as Middle Hindi فوج (fvj /⁠fauj⁠/).^[1]

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /fɔːd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -ɔːd͡ʒ

فَوج • (fauj) f (formal plural اَفْواج (afvāj), Hindi spelling फ़ौज)

1. army (military; force)

   Synonym: سینا (senā)

2. (figuratively) a horde (both in terms of items or people).

• “فوج”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
• Fallon, Platts, Qureshi, Shakespear (2024) “فوج”, in Digital Dictionaries of South Asia [Combined Urdu Dictionaries]