What it means
دقیقه (daqiqeh) is the everyday Persian word for a minute. It is borrowed from Arabic دقيقة (daqiqa), derived from دقيق (daqiq), meaning “fine, precise, or minute in size.” The connection is that a minute is a precise, small subdivision of time. You will hear this word constantly: in scheduling, cooking, waiting, and casual conversation. A related word worth knowing is لحظه (lahzeh), which means a brief, indefinite moment rather than an exact sixty seconds.
How to use it
- ده دقیقه دیگه میرسم. (dah daqiqeh dige miresam.) “I’ll arrive in ten minutes.”
- فقط یه دقیقه وقت داری؟ (faqat ye daqiqeh vaqt dari?) “Do you have just one minute?”
- غذا بیست دقیقهای آماده میشه. (ghazâ bist daqiqeh-i âmâdeh mishe.) “The food will be ready in about twenty minutes.”
- دقیقه به دقیقه داره چک میکنه. (daqiqeh be daqiqeh dâre chek mikone.) “He is checking it minute by minute.”
Cultural note
In Persian casual speech, دقیقه sometimes floats as a polite way to buy time, as in “give me a minute.” Iranian culture around punctuality is famously flexible: an event said to start at a certain hour may begin دقیقهها later. The adjective دقیق (daqiq) from the same Arabic root also means “precise” or “exact” in Persian, making the word family easy to remember together.