Definition: Dunam, or dunum, is a unit of land measurement dating back to the Ottoman Empire. In Arabic, the word is spelled دونم (dūnam).
The dunam is still still used today as a measure of real estate in the Levant, including in Palestine/Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, but it has varying values.
Here are the values of a dunam in different countries:
- During the late Ottoman Empire, it was 919 square meters, or 9,892 square feet, or 0.227 acres.
- Since the 1920s, the dunam in Israel/Palestine, Syria and Jordan and Turkey has been enlarged to 1,000 square meters, or 10763.9 square feet, or 0.25 acres.
- In Northern Cyprus, which is controlled by Turkey, a dunam is 1,337.8 square meters, or 10.7639 square feet, or 26.6 acres.
- In Iraq, a dunam is 2,5000 square meters, 26,909.8 square feet, or 0.618 acres.
Alternate Spellings: dönüm, dunum, donum, danam