What it means
نخ (nakh) is the everyday Persian word for thread, strand, string, the thin twisted fiber you sew with or pull off a sweater. It also pulls a second job as a counter. When you ask for a single cigarette at the kiosk, you say یک نخ سیگار (yek nakh sigar), one strand of cigarette. The image fits, a cigarette is a long thin rolled stick, the same shape category as thread. Persian counter logic groups objects by shape and feel, and nakh covers the long, thin, fiber-or-stick class.
What it counts
Cigarettes are the big use case: یک نخ، دو نخ، سه نخ سیگار. After that, nakh counts threads themselves (دو نخ نخ سفید, two strands of white thread), strings on an instrument (شش نخ ساز, six strings on the instrument), and occasionally long thin pasta strands or hair locks in casual speech. You will not hear nakh used for pencils or cigars, those go to other counters. The line is real but fuzzy: thin, soft, fiber-shaped, pull-able.
Persian counters are lighter than the Japanese or Chinese systems, you can almost always get by with the generic تا (ta). But specific counters are what fluent speech sounds like. A native asks for یک نخ سیگار, never یک تا سیگار at the kiosk.
How to use it
yek nakh sigar mishe lotfan?
Can I get one cigarette please?
یک نخ سیگار میشه لطفا؟
do nakh nakh-e meshki baraye dukhtan lazem daram.
I need two strands of black thread for sewing.
دو نخ نخ مشکی برای دوختن لازم دارم.
in saz shesh nakh dare.
This instrument has six strings.
این ساز شش نخ داره.
Where it comes from
nakh is a native Persian word from the Middle Persian root for fiber and thread, with cognates across Indo-Iranian languages for spun material. The shift from noun to counter is a familiar Persian move, the same way دانه (dane, grain, seed) becomes a counter for small round things and تخته (takhteh, plank) becomes a counter for flat boards. The object lends its shape to the counter slot.
In our voice
Learn nakh with cigarettes first, it is the use case you will hear within a week of arriving in Tehran. Once the counter clicks in your ear, the broader use for thread, string, and fiber slots in without effort. Counters are not grammar trivia, they are the small marks that separate a learner who has read about Persian from one who lives in it.
References
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