प्रभा

• परभा (parbhā)

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit प्रभा (prabhā́). Cognate with Marathi प्रभा (prabhā), Nepali प्रभा (prabhā) and Telugu ప్రభ (prabha).

• (Delhi) IPA^(key): /pɾə.bʱɑː/, [pɾɐ.bʱäː]

प्रभा • (prabhā) f (Urdu spelling پِرَبھا)

1. light, brilliance, splendour, lustre

   Synonyms: प्रकाश (prakāś), कांति (kānti), तेज (tej), चमक (camak)

2. personification of light

प्रभा • (prabhā) f (Urdu spelling پِرَبھا)

1. a female given name, Prabha, from Sanskrit

• Dāsa, Śyāmasundara (1965–1975) “प्रभा”, in Hindī Śabdasāgara [lit. Sea of Hindi words] (in Hindi), Kashi [Varanasi]: Nagari Pracarini Sabha
• Platts, John T. (1884) “प्रभा”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.
• “پِرَبھا”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
• McGregor, Ronald Stuart (1993) “प्रभा”, in The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, London: Oxford University Press

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit प्रभा (prabhā́). Cognate with Hindustani پِرَبھا (pirabhā) / प्रभा (prabhā), Nepali प्रभा (prabhā) and Telugu ప్రభ (prabha). First attested as Old Marathi प्रभा (prabhā).

• IPA^(key): /pɾə.bʱa/

प्रभा • (prabhā) f

1. light, brilliance, splendour, lustre

• दाते, यशवंत रामकृष्ण [Date, Yashwant Ramkrishna] (1932-1950) “प्रभा”, in महाराष्ट्र शब्दकोश (mahārāṣṭra śabdakoś) (in Marathi), पुणे [Pune]: महाराष्ट्र कोशमंडळ (mahārāṣṭra kośmaṇḍaḷ)
• Molesworth, James Thomas (1857) “प्रभा”, in A dictionary, Marathi and English, Bombay: Printed for government at the Bombay Education Society's Press

Learned borrowing from Sanskrit प्रभा (prabhā́). Cognate with Hindustani پِرَبھا (pirabhā) / प्रभा (prabhā), Marathi प्रभा (prabhā) and Telugu ప్రభ (prabha).

• IPA^(key): [prʌbä]
• Phonetic Devanagari: प्रबा

प्रभा • (prabhā)

1. light, brilliance, splendour, lustre

• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1931) “प्रभा”, in A comparative and etymological dictionary of the Nepali language, London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner

प्रभा (prabhā) f

1. Devanagari script form of 𑘢𑘿𑘨𑘥𑘰

From Proto-Indo-European *pro- + *bʰeh₂-. By surface analysis, प्र- (pra-) +‎ भा (bhā).

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /pɾɐ.bʱɑ́ː/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /pɾɐ.bʱɑː/

प्रभा • (prabhā́) stem, f

1. light, brilliance, radiance, splendour, lustre, luminosity
   • c. 400 BCE, Bhagavad Gītā 7.8:

     रसोऽहमप्सु कौन्तेय प्रभास्मि शशिसूर्ययोः। प्रणवः सर्ववेदेषु शब्दः खे पौरुषं नृषु॥

     rasoʼhamapsu kaunteya prabhāsmi śaśisūryayoḥ. praṇavaḥ sarvavedeṣu śabdaḥ khe pauruṣaṃ nṛṣu.

     O son of Kuntī, I am the taste of water, the light of the sun and the moon, the syllable oṁ in the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether and ability in man.

   • c. 700 CE – 900 CE, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.85.7:

     कान्तिस्तेज: प्रभा सत्ता चन्द्राग्‍न्यर्कर्क्षविद्युताम्। यत्स्थैर्यं भूभृतां भूमेर्वृत्तिर्गन्धोऽर्थतो भवान्॥

     kāntisteja: prabhā sattā candrāg‍nyarkarkṣavidyutām. yatsthairyaṃ bhūbhṛtāṃ bhūmervṛttirgandhoʼrthato bhavān.

     The glow of the moon, the brilliance of fire, the radiance of the sun, the twinkling of the stars, the flash of lightning, the permanence of mountains and the aroma and sustaining power of the earth — all these are actually you.

2. beautiful appearance
3. sunlight

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:सूर्यकान्ति

   • c. 700 CE – 900 CE, Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.31.16:

     एतत्पदं तज्जगदात्मनः परं सकृद्विभातं सवितुर्यथा प्रभा। यथासवो जाग्रति सुप्तशक्तयो द्रव्यक्रियाज्ञानभिदाभ्रमात्ययः॥

     etatpadaṃ tajjagadātmanaḥ paraṃ sakṛdvibhātaṃ savituryathā prabhā. yathāsavo jāgrati suptaśaktayo dravyakriyājñānabhidābhramātyayaḥ.

     Just as the sunshine is nondifferent from the sun, the cosmic manifestation is also nondifferent from the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Supreme Personality is therefore all-pervasive within this material creation. When the senses are active, they appear to be part and parcel of the body, but when the body is asleep, their activities are unmanifest. Similarly, the whole cosmic creation appears different and yet nondifferent from the Supreme Person.

4. the shadow of the gnomon on a sundial

प्रभा • (prabhā)

1. to shine forth, begin to become light, shine, gleam
2. to appear, seem, look like
3. to illuminate, enlighten

Primary Verbal Forms

Non-Finite Forms

Derived Nominal Forms

• Monier Williams (1899) “प्रभा”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 683, column 3.
• Apte, Vaman Shivram (1890) “प्रभा”, in The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary, Poona: Prasad Prakashan
• Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1893) “प्रभा”, in A practical Sanskrit dictionary with transliteration, accentuation, and etymological analysis throughout, London: Oxford University Press
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “prabhāˊ”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press
• Hellwig, Oliver (2010–2025) “prabhā”, in DCS - The Digital Corpus of Sanskrit, Berlin, Germany.