Root · 0 in the Quran · 2 in 2 texts of the library
ألب (root lb)
الهمزة واللام والباء يكون من التجمع والعطف والرجوع وما أشبه ذلك قال الخليل الإءلب الصغو
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of أ ل ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
10 words3 verbs2 verbal nouns1 participle1 place or instrument1 intensive or elative2 other nouns
- أَلَبَit was, or became, collected
- تألّبوَthey collected themselves together
- أَلْبpersons, or people, collected together
- مُؤَلِّبenvious man, who excites discord or strife, or makes mischief
- أَلَبhelmets of camels' shins
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3أَلَبَ · اَلَّبَ · تألّبوَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Form I vowels: فَعَلَ يَفْعِلُ (a – i; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns2أَلْب · تَأْلِيب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles1مُؤَلِّب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُؤَلِّبenvious man, who excites discord or strife, or makes mischiefLaneactive, Form IILane
Place, time and instrument1مِئْلَب
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مِئْلَبnoun of instrumentLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative1أَلُوب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 8 patterns does
What each pattern does. The pattern gives a tendency, not a rule: many words have drifted into meanings of their own.
The pattern machinePour the root into a pattern; see whether the word exists
Choose a pattern; the root's letters pour into it. Then see whether the word exists in our sources. The machine makes shapes; only usage makes words.
Not in our sources. A possible shape, not a word we can show: the Quran, the library and Lane do not have it for this root.
Place noun with -a. The place noun with the feminine -a. Sometimes it is only a variant of mafʿal; often it names the place where a thing is found in abundance (maʾsada, 'a place full of lions'). So maktab is the place of writing, and maktaba, where writings are gathered: a library, a bookshop. Our summary AI
But: maktaba is not in our classical dictionaries for k-t-b: Lane and al-Jawharī give maktab ('a school'), none gives maktaba. Its sense of 'library, bookshop' fits the pattern of abundance, but that is our reading of the pattern, not a classical entry. Many mafʿala words are single items of usage (maqbara 'cemetery'), which the grammarians call heard, not formed by rule.
The grammarians on this pattern (4)
ما يكون مفعلة لازمة لها الهاء والفتحة … وذلك إذا أردت أن تكثر الشيء بالمكان، وذلك قولك: أرض مسبعة، ومأسدة
Chapter on what is mafʿala, with the -a and the a-vowel always: that is when you mean that a thing abounds in a place, as you say 'a land of many beasts of prey (masbaʿa), of many lions (maʾsada)' AI
Sībawayh (d. c. 180/796), al-Kitāb, ed. ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, 3rd ed. (Cairo: al-Khānjī, 1988), 4:94 · OpenITI line 21027–21028 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
و نحو المظنة و المقبرة فتحا و ضما ليس بقياس
and words like maẓinna and maqbara (with a or u) are not by rule AI
Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646/1249), al-Shāfiya fī ʿilm al-taṣrīf, ed. Ḥasan Aḥmad al-ʿUthmān (Mecca: al-Maktaba al-Makkiyya, 1995), 1:30 · OpenITI line 223 ↗ · on this site · OpenITI RELEASE v2025.1.9, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- “designate the place where the object signified by the noun from which they are formed, is found in large numbers or quantities” Wright, Grammar I, §247, p. 148 ↗ · on nouns of abundance, maf'ala · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
- “Nouns of time and place not unfrequently take the feminine form” Wright, Grammar I, §225, p. 128 ↗ · on maf'ala as a variant of maf'al · 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1896) · public domain
This root has a weak or doubled letter, so real words change shape (qāla → qāʾil, not qāwil); the machine pours the letters in as they are, and matches attested words by their regular pattern.
About thisWhat “attested” means here; the sources
Attested means found in our data: the Quranic Arabic Corpus (lemmas, verb Forms, participles, verbal nouns, plurals), the library's words (automatic analysis), Lane's Lexicon (his headwords, the Forms he numbers, the verbal nouns and plurals he names) and Ibn Fāris's entry. Nothing is generated for this list. Meanings are Lane's first gloss in his entry, or else the analyser's gloss (“auto”). Vowelling follows the corpus, then Lane, then the analyser; verbs are given in the regular perfect. Lane's Lexicon thins out after qāf, and a few of his entries cover several roots at once: those roots show no Lane. The patterns, written with ف ع ل, are computed by us.
The dictionaries
Ibn Fāris · 395الهمزة واللام والباء يكون من التجمع والعطف والرجوع وما أشبه ذلك قال الخليل الإءلب الصغو يقال إءلبه معه وصاروا عليه إءلبا واحدا في العداوة والشر قال — والناس إءلب علينا فيك ليس لنا … إلا السيوف وأطراف القنا وزر … الشيباني
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
أ ل ب
الهمزة واللام والباء يكون من التجمع والعطف والرجوع وما أشبه ذلك
a-l-b comes from gathering, turning, and returning, and the like. AI
an entry in Ibn Fārislater sources onlyin none of them
Do these six share one core meaning?
Reference
About thisal-Khalīl, Ibn Jinnī, Ibn Fāris; the counts across the dictionary
al-Khalīl (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn, as transmitted by al-Layth: a two-letter word “turns in two ways”, a three-letter word “in six ways” (masdūsa), four letters in 24, five in 120; “its used forms are written down and its unused ones dropped” (line 975 ↗). The dictionary is built on this: each chapter takes a set of letters and names which orders are used (mustaʿmal) and which unused (muhmal). The ring shows that verdict, from the chapter heading as edited (documented in the text; how much of the book is al-Khalīl's own is disputed).
A reported total. al-Suyūṭī transmits, from Ḥamza al-Iṣfahānī, that al-Khalīl put the possible forms, used and unused, of two to five letters at 12,305,412 (al-Muzhir, line 1347 ↗). It is reported, not found in the ʿAyn. It equals exactly the arrangements of 2 to 5 different letters out of 28 (756 + 19,656 + 491,400 + 11,793,600); the breakdown printed beside it is corrupt, and al-Zubaydī's count, given next, differs (6,659,400).
Ibn Jinnī (d. 392/1002), al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, names the greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar): bind a three-letter root and its six orders to one meaning, and bring stray members back “by the subtlety of the craft and interpretation” (line 7536 ↗). He says himself that it does not hold for every root (line 167 ↗; line 7603 ↗).
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004) gives each root its own aṣl and treats a rearranged word as maqlūb, “turned round”, and so not a root of its own: “j-b-dh is not a root, because it is a single word, turned round” (Maqāyīs, line 6147 ↗). The ring sets his aṣl for each order side by side; whether they meet is the question.
Neighbours on the ring differ by one swap of two letters.
The critique. A source quoted by al-Suyūṭī calls the greater derivation Ibn Jinnī's innovation, “not relied on in the language” (al-Muzhir, line 6159 ↗).
The other axis. The root's letters also go into patterns that keep their order and change the frame: the patterns (awzān) and the verb Forms I–X.
Across Ibn Fāris's dictionary. Of the 2,300 possible sets of three different sound letters (no hamza, w or y), 1,021 have at least one order as an entry. How many of their six orders are entries:
- 1 of 6319
- 2 of 6218
- 3 of 6164
- 4 of 6155
- 5 of 6107
- 6 of 658
- 1 of 6148
- 2 of 6108
- 3 of 6157
- 4 of 6179
- 5 of 6111
- 6 of 643
Of the orders al-Khalīl calls used, 2,097 are entries in Ibn Fāris and 267 are not; 17 that he calls unused are entries in Ibn Fāris.
Attested here means found in our digital texts (Ibn Fāris, Lisān al-ʿArab, Lane, the Quranic Arabic Corpus), with w and y kept apart and hamza spellings merged; it is our data, not a classical verdict. English beside the Arabic is AI translation. Sources and grades: docs/research/root-permutations.md.
Letters & sound
- أhamzadeep in the throat · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
How each letter is made, in brief, from Sībawayh's and Ibn Jinnī's own sentences (linked); their words are under Reference.
Sharing two of its three letters (computed; kinship of form, not of meaning)
Reference
How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
أ
فأقصاها مخرجا: الهمزة والهاء والألف
The furthest of them [the three in the throat] in place: the hamza, the hāʾ and the alif. Sībawayh, line 26548 ↗
فأولها من أسفله وأقصاه، مخرج الهمزة والألف والهاء، هكذا يقول سيبويه
The first of them [in the throat], from its lowest and furthest part, is the place of the hamza, the alif and the hāʾ: so Sībawayh says. Ibn Jinnī, line 965 ↗
ل
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان، من بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى، مما فويق الضاحك والناب والرباعية والثنية، مخرج اللام
From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it, just above the premolar, the canine, the lateral and the central incisor, is the place of the lām. Ibn Jinnī, lines 977–978 ↗
ب
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء، والميم، والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Sībawayh, line 26563 ↗
ومما بين الشفتين مخرج الباء والميم والواو
From between the two lips is the place of the bāʾ, the mīm and the wāw. Ibn Jinnī, line 986 ↗
Sībawayh, al-Kitāb (ed. Hārūn) and Ibn Jinnī, Sirr ṣināʿat al-iʿrāb; OpenITI digital texts (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Full credits on each letter's page.
In the Breath of the All-MercifulIbn ʿArabī · metaphysics
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
أ
Nature (ch. 2)
وإلا الهاء والهمزة فإنهما باردتان رطبتان
And except hāʾ and hamza, for these two are cold and moist.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2583ل
Level of existence: السماء الثالثة · the third heaven
Divine Name: القاهر · the Subduer (al-Qāhir)
Lunar mansion: العوا · al-ʿAwwā
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64654Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2576 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
منها دون الألف فطبعها الحرارة واليبوسة
[Zāy and lām] of it, excluding alif: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2577ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
المرتبة العشرية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The tenfold rank: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
أ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الأشياء قلت أو كثرت، وتكون الإشارة في بعض الأحيان من المتكلم إلى ذاته ونفسه، وهذه الإشارة سالمة من القبض.
It is an indication of all things, whether few or many. At times the indication is from the speaker to his own essence and self, and this indication is free of contraction (qabḍ).
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القريب القليل.
It is an indication of the near, small thing.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القريب المناسب.
It is an indication of the near, fitting (congruent) thing.
ل
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي حصول المتكلم على شيء عظيم، وتكون إشارة إلى شيء عظيم.
It is the speaker's attaining of something great, and it serves as an indication of something great.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نهاية له.
It is an indication of the thing that has no end.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة من المتكلم إلى وجود ذاته أو إلى ذاته.
It is an indication by the speaker of the existence of his self, or of his self.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
Two-letter nucleus28 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterء ل
Ibn Fāris groups his roots under two-letter chapters (“the X and the Y and what makes them three”). These are the roots of this root's chapter with the core sense he gives each. Setting them side by side is our juxtaposition; he does not himself draw a shared meaning. His chapter heading, line 1485 ↗
- ألمالهمزة واللام والميم أصل واحد وهو الوجعQ 75 · L1486
- ألوىالهمزة واللام وما بعدهما في المعتل أصلان متباعدان أحدهما الاجتهاد والمبالغة والآخر التقصير والثاني خلاف ذلك الأول قولهم آلى يولى إذا حلف ألية وإءلوةL1497
- ألتالهمزة واللام والتاء كلمة واحدة تدل على النقصانQ 1 · L1538
- ألسالهمزة واللام والسين كلمة واحدة وهي الخيانة العرب تسمى الخيانة ألسا يقولون لا يدالس ولا يؤالسL1540
- ألفالهمزة واللام والفاء أصل واحد يدل على انضمام الشيء إلى الشيء والأشياء الكثيرة أيضاQ 22 · L1542
- ألقالهمزة واللام والقاف أصل يدل على الخفة والطيش واللمعان بسرعةL1556
- أمنالهمزة والميم والنون أصلان متقاربان أحدهما الأمانة التي هي ضد الخيانة ومعناها سكون القلب والآخر التصديق والمعنيان كما قلنا متدانيانQ 879 · L1578
- أمهوأما الهمزة والميم والهاء فقد ذكروا في قول الله ( وادكر بعد أمه ) على قراءة من قرأها كذلك أنه النسيانL1608
- أموىوأما الهمزة والميم وما بعدهما من المعتل فأصل واحد وهو عبودية المملوكةL1610
- أمتالهمزة والميم والتاء أصل واحد لا يقاس عليه وهو الأمتQ 1 · L1619
- أمدالهمزة والميم والدال الأمد الغاية كلمة واحدة لا يقاس عليهاQ 4 · L1622
- أمرالهمزة والميم والراء أصول خمسة الأمر من الأمور والأمر ضد النهي والأمر النماء والبركة بفتح الميم والمعلم والعجب فأما الواحد من الأمور فقولهم هذا أمر رضQ 248 · L1623
- أملالهمزة والميم واللام أصلان الأول التثبت والانتظار والثاني الحبل من الرمل فأما الأول فقال الخليل الأمل الرجاء فتقول أملته أؤمله تأميلا وأملته آمله أملاQ 2 · L1656
- أنىالهمزة والنون وما بعدهما من المعتل له أصول أربعة البطء وما أشبهه من الحلم وغيره وساعة من الزمان وإدراك الشيء وظرف من الظروف فأما ا لأول فقال الخليل الQ 36 · L1670
- أنبالهمزة والنون والباء حرف واحد أنبته تأنيبا أي وبخته ولمته والأنبوب ما بين كل عقدتين ويزعمون أن الأناب المسك والله أعلم بصحته وينشدون قول الفرزدق — كأنL1701
- أنحالهمزة والنون والحاء أصل واحد وهو صوت تنحنح وزحيرL1712
- أنسالهمزة والنون والسين أصل واحد وهو ظهور الشيء وكل شيء خالف طريقة التوحشQ 97 · L1721
- أنضالهمزة والنون والضاد كلمة واحدة لا يقاس عليهاL1728
- انفالهمزة والنون والفاء أصلان منهما يتفرع مسائل الباب كلها أحدهما أخذ الشيء من أوله والثاني أنف كل ذي أنف وقياسه التحديد فأما الأصل الأول فقال الخليل استQ 3 · L1732
- أنقالهمزة والنون والقاف يدل على أصل واحد وهو المعجب والإعجابL1767
- أهبالهمزة والهاء والباء كلمتان متباينتا الأصلL1783
- أهرالهمزة والهاء والراء كلمة واحدة ليست عند الخليل ولا ابن دريد وقال غيرهما الأهرة متاع البيتL1788
- أهلالهمزة والهاء واللام أصلان متباعدان أحدهما الأهلQ 127 · L1789
- أهنالهمزة والهاء والنون كلمة واحدة لا يقاس عليهاL1800
- أوىالهمزة والواو والياء أصلان أحدهما التجمع والثاني الإشفاقQ 36 · L1806
- أولالهمزة والواو واللام أصلان ابتداء الأمر وانتهاؤه أما الأولQ 170 · L1888
- أونالهمزة والنون كلمة واحدة تدل على الرفقL1940
- أوهالهمزة والواو والهاء كلمة ليست أصلا يقاس عليهاQ 2 · L1943
In the sister scriptsHebrew א ל בSyriac ܐ ܠ ܒ
| Arabic | أ ل ب |
| Hebrew | א ל ב |
| Syriac | ܐ ܠ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩱 𐩡 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤀 𐤋 𐤁 |
Letter for letter, by the regular sound correspondences of the Semitic languages (Arabic keeps several sounds the others merged). This shows how the root would be spelled; whether a related word exists is a separate question, answered in the Semitic lens. Where an Arabic sibilant (s, sh) continues two older sounds, both spellings are shown.
Reference