What it means
حدوداً (hodudan) means “roughly,” “approximately,” or “about.” It comes from Arabic, where حدود (hudud) is the broken plural of حد (hadd, meaning “limit” or “boundary”), and the اً ending marks it as an adverb. In Persian it functions as a hedge, softening any figure or claim to show it is an estimate. A common synonym is تقریباً (taqriban), which is nearly interchangeable in most contexts.
How to use it
- حدوداً یه ساعت طول میکشه. (hodudan ye sa’at tool mikeshe.) “It takes about an hour.”
- اون حدوداً سی سالشه. (un hodudan si sâlashe.) “She is roughly thirty years old.”
- حدوداً ده نفر اومدن. (hodudan dah nafar umadan.) “About ten people came.”
- این کار حدوداً دو میلیون هزینه داره. (in kar hodudan do million hezine dare.) “This job costs roughly two million.”
Cultural note
Persian speakers use حدوداً constantly in daily life because giving an exact figure, especially for money, time, or distance, is often considered premature or impolite without one. Hedging with حدوداً signals social awareness as much as factual imprecision. In bazaar negotiations, vendors and buyers both lean on this word to keep numbers soft and leave room for discussion.