Meaning & use
sehri
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
the meal eaten before dawn during Ramadan, before the day's fast begins.
Grammar: Countable: used with 'a' or 'the', e.g. 'We had a light sehri.'
Patterns
- eat sehri
- have sehri
- the sehri meal
- before sehri
During Ramadan, families wake up early to eat sehri.
She prepared a simple sehri of eggs and toast.
The mosque announced the time for sehri.
noununcountable
the time just before dawn when this meal is eaten.
Grammar: Uncountable: used without 'a' or a plural, e.g. 'at sehri'.
Patterns
- at sehri
- before sehri ends
We woke up at sehri to eat before the fast.
The alarm went off at sehri.
Word forms
| plural | sehris |
|---|
Common combinations
- eat sehri
- It is important to eat sehri to have energy for the day.
- sehri time
- The sehri time changes each day during Ramadan.
- a light sehri
- He prefers a light sehri of fruit and yogurt.
- wake up for sehri
- They wake up for sehri before sunrise.
Synonyms and how they differ
- suhoor
- Suhoor is the Arabic term used in many countries; sehri is the South Asian term.
Opposites
Commonly confused: sehri or iftar?
sehri vs iftar
Iftar is the meal eaten after sunset to break the fast; sehri is the meal eaten before dawn to start the fast.
Practice
During Ramadan, Muslims eat ______ before dawn.
Choose one answer.
Sehri is the pre-dawn meal during Ramadan. Iftar is the evening meal that breaks the fast. Dinner and supper are general evening meals and do not fit the context of fasting before dawn.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sehri”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.