arroba

A1R1R1O1B3A1

noun

A traditional Spanish unit of mass, varying by time, location, and substance but generally around 11.5 kilograms.

OriginPortuguese arroba ← Old Spanish arroua ← Old Galician-Portuguese arrova →
Scrabble 8
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounarroba (plural arrobas)

plural arrobas

  1. historicalA traditional Spanish unit of mass, varying by time, location, and substance but generally around 11.5 kilograms.
  2. historicalA traditional Portuguese unit of mass, usually equivalent to 14.7 kilograms.
  3. historicalA traditional Spanish unit of liquid measure, varying by time, location, and substance but generally around 15 liters.

Origin

  1. Arabicاَلرُّبْع“one-fourth”
  2. Old Galician-Portuguesearrova
  3. Old Spanisharroua
  4. Portuguesearroba
  5. Englisharroba

From Spanish and Portuguese arroba, from Old Spanish arroua and Old Galician-Portuguese arrova, from Andalusian Arabic and Arabic اَلرُّبْع (ar-rubʕ, “one-fourth”) in reference to its making up one fourth of a quintal.

More words from Portuguese, Old Spanish, Old Galician-Portuguese

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Portuguese arroba
  • arrobatraditional Spanish and Portuguese unit of mass
Russian арро́ба
  • арро́ба (arróba)traditional Spanish and Portuguese unit of mass
Spanish arroba
  • arrobatraditional Spanish and Portuguese unit of mass
Cite this entry
APA

arroba. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arroba

MLA

“arroba.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arroba. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “arroba,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arroba.

Source: arroba on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.