al-qaida

The term "al-Qaida" is a direct transliteration of the Arabic phrase "القاعدة" (al-qāʿidah), which literally means "the base," "the foundation," or "the rule." In its original Arabic context, it could refer to a military base, a foundation of knowledge, or a methodological principle. The organization co-opted this common noun as its proper name, symbolizing its intended role as the foundational base or vanguard for a global jihadist movement. When adopted into English in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the word lost its literal Arabic meaning for most speakers and became a fixed, unanalyzed proper noun referring specifically to the terrorist network.

This is a loanword from Arabic, adopted as a single lexical unit in English. It is not productively segmented using English morphemes.