What it means
انتظار (entezâr) covers two related ideas: the physical act of waiting for someone or something, and the emotional state of expecting or anticipating an outcome. The word is borrowed from Arabic, from the root n-z-r, meaning to look or to watch for. In spoken Persian you will hear it in both senses interchangeably. A close phrase is چشم به راه بودن (cheshm be râh budan), literally to have one’s eyes on the road, which is a more poetic way to say the same thing. انتظار کشیدن (entezâr keshidan) is the verb form used to describe enduring a long wait.
How to use it
- منتظرتم. (Montazeretam.) “I’m waiting for you.”
- این انتظار خیلی طولانی شد. (In entezâr kheyli tulâni shod.) “This wait has gone on too long.”
- از من انتظار نداشته باش. (Az man entezâr nadâshte bâsh.) “Don’t expect anything from me.”
- بدون انتظار کمک کردم. (Bedune entezâr komak kardam.) “I helped without expecting anything in return.”
Cultural note
Waiting and patience are recurring themes in classical Persian poetry. Poets such as Hafez and Rumi used imagery of waiting, the candle burning through the night, the lover waiting at the door, to describe spiritual longing as much as human love. In modern Iran, انتظار also carries a religious dimension in Shia Islam, where the concept of انتظار فرج (entezâr-e faraj), waiting for the emergence of the hidden Imam, is a significant theological idea that shapes how many Iranians relate to hope and patient endurance in difficult times.