The Letter Ta (ت): Abjad Value 400, Repentance & Mindfulness

Ta is a small, busy letter. It is a plain tooth on the line with two dots above it, and it turns up everywhere in Arabic, from the ends of verbs to the ends of feminine names. Yet it also opens some of the most hopeful words in the language, the words of turning back to God and guarding the heart.

What Is the Arabic Letter Ta (ت)?

Ta is the third letter of the modern Arabic alphabet and the twenty-second letter in the Abjad order. It makes a crisp, unvoiced /t/ sound, formed with the tip of the tongue just behind the upper teeth. In shape it is a simple tooth that sits on the line, marked by two dots above.

What Is the Abjad Value of Ta?

In the Abjad system, also called Hisab al-Jummal, the Abjad value of Ta is 400. It is one of the “hundreds” letters, so it adds a large amount to a word’s total. The value never changes with the letter’s position in a word.

In Arabic and Urdu this number is often called the adad (عدد), with adad meaning simply “number.” So the adad value of Ta, its adad number or adad numerical value, is 400. You may also see it written as Abjad adad or Arabic adad, and the Arabic adad value of a letter never changes with its position. The adad calculation just adds each letter’s fixed number, one after another.

Ta keeps the value 400 in both main systems, because it is not one of the six letters that differ between Mashriqi and Maghribi. So a word with Ta gives the same Ta contribution either way. For the full method, see the Abjad Calculation Rules.

Ta: The Letter of Repentance and Mindfulness

Ta opens a family of words tied to turning back to God and guarding the heart. This is a fact of the language, not a property of the number.

It begins توبة (Tawbah, repentance), تقوى (Taqwa, God-consciousness), توحيد (Tawhid, the oneness of God), and توكل (Tawakkul, reliance on God). Each is a word a believer returns to daily, and each begins with this quiet tooth-shaped letter.

Words of Devotion That Begin With Ta

You can check any of these in the calculator above, and switch the method to compare Mashriqi and Maghribi totals.

Companions and Names That Contain Ta

Ta appears in many well-known names from Islamic history. To find the adad of a name that contains Ta, you simply add the values of its letters. The totals below are plain letter sums, shown for study only, and carry no ranking or hidden meaning.

Companions (Sahaba)

Female Companions (Sahabiat)

Scholars and Notable Muslims

Check any of these names yourself in the calculator above to see the running total build up letter by letter.

Everyday Words That Contain Ta

Ta is one of the most common letters in daily Arabic. Finding the adad of a word that contains it works the same way: add Ta’s 400 to the value of the other letters.

Ta is also the mark of the feminine in Arabic. Many verbs and names end in a written Ta (ت) or in the “tied ta,” ta marbuta (ة), which is counted as 5 on this site. You can read more about that choice in the calculation rules.

How to Write and Recognize Ta (ت)

Ta joins to the letters on both sides, so it has the full set of four forms. The body stays a simple tooth; only the connecting strokes change.

Common Confusion: Ba (ب) vs. Ta (ت) vs. Tha (ث)

These three letters share the exact same tooth-shaped body. Only the dots tell them apart, and the dots change both the sound and the Abjad value:

Ta Across Ancient Alphabets

The Arabic Ta descends from the Phoenician letter Taw (𐤕), which meant “mark” or “sign” and was drawn as a simple cross. That same ancestor gave several familiar letters, and the value 400 travels with it in the Semitic scripts.

Frequently Asked Questions