Arabic

Arabic is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic, which is derived from Classical Arabic. This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as ( "the eloquent Arabic") or simply '' ().

Arabic is the third–most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations, and the liturgical language of Islam. Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth–most spoken language in the world and the fourth–most used language on the Internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than two billion Muslims. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic the fourth–most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese, and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, an abjad script that is written from right to left.