Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the word classes in Ancient Egyptian, Semitic, and Cushitic languages. It illustrates different scenarios in the make-up and evolution of word categories, which focuses on verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Afroasiatic provides linguists with a wealth of documentation that shows the fluidity of some word categories on a long-term scale. The chapter elaborates on the history of Afroasiatic phylum languages that showcased strong divergences and similarities among different languages, referring to the growing dispute about the exact number of living Afroasiatic languages. It also highlights other categories playing an important role in the grammaticalization of verbs.