Root · 0 in the Quran · 97 in 13 texts of the library
أيضto return, recur — per Ibn Fāris a single meaning (root yd)
الهمزة والياء والضاد كلمة واحدة تدل على الرجوع والعود
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of أ ي ض that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
2 words1 verb1 verbal noun
- أَيْضmetabolism
- آضَhe returned to the thing
The whole family2 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs1آضَ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Verbal nouns1أَيْض
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- أَيْضmetabolismautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×48Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 2 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
English: AI translation AIal-Khalīl · 170Al-ayḍ (الأيض) [221]: the transformation of a thing into something other than itself, and its changing from one state to another.
al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Jawharī · 393Their saying, 'I did that also (ayḍan)' — Ibn al-Sikkīt said: it is the maṣdar (verbal noun) of your saying āḍa yaʾīḍu ayḍan (آض يئيض أيضا), meaning 'he returned.' One says: āḍa fulānun ilā ahlihi (آض فلان إلى أهله), i.e
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395The letters hamza, yāʾ, and ḍād form one word indicating return and repetition.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Āḍa yaʾīḍu ayḍan (آض يئيض أيضا): he traveled and returned.
Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLane · 1876English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
E. W. Lane (d. 1876), An Arabic-English Lexicon. English, synthesising the classical dictionaries.
Lane, Arabic-English Lexiconread Lane's entry online ↗
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
أ ي ض
الهمزة والياء والضاد كلمة واحدة تدل على الرجوع والعود
a-y-ḍ is a single word indicating returning and coming back. 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
- يyāʾmiddle of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- ضḍādside of the tongue, by the molars · voiced, continuant, velarisedSīb. · 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 ↗
ي
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26553 ↗
ومن وسط اللسان بينه وبين وسط الحنك الأعلى، مخرج الجيم والشين والياء
From the middle of the tongue, between it and the middle of the upper palate, is the place of the jīm, the shīn and the yāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 974 ↗
ض
ومن بين أول حافة اللسان وما يليها من الأضراس مخرج الضاد
From between the first part of the tongue's edge and the molars next to it is the place of the ḍād. Sībawayh, line 26554 ↗
ومن أول حافة اللسان وما يليها من الأضراس مخرج الضاد
From the first part of the tongue's edge and the molars next to it is the place of the ḍād. Ibn Jinnī, line 975 ↗
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 2583ي
Level of existence: السماء الأولى · The First Heaven
Divine Name: الرب · The Lord (al-Rabb)
Lunar mansion: الخرتان · al-Kharatān
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64500Spheres 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 2582ض
Level of existence: السماء الثانية · the second heaven
Divine Name: العليم · the All-Knowing (al-ʿAlīm)
Lunar mansion: الصرفة · al-Ṣarfa
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64627Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 8 line 2571 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
الثمانية فحروفها حارة يابسة
The eightfold [rank]: its letters are hot and dry.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2580Meaning 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.
ي
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي للنداء، وقد يؤكد بها.
It is for the vocative (calling), and it may be used for emphasis.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا يثبت كالبرق ونحوه.
It is an indication of the thing that does not remain fixed, like lightning and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي يستحيا به أو يستحيا منه كالعورة.
It is an indication of the thing that causes shame, or of which one is ashamed, like the private parts.
ض
With fatḥa ـَ
عبارة عن الصحة وعدم البلاء.
It expresses health and the absence of affliction.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي لا نور فيه أو لا ظلام فيه.
It is an indication of the thing in which there is no light, or no darkness.
With kasra ـِ
فهي عبارة عن الخضوع.
It expresses submissiveness/humility.
Two-letter nucleus23 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterء ي
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 1950 ↗
- أيدالهمزة والياء والدال أصل واحد يدل على القوة والحفظQ 11 · L1951
- أيسالهمزة والياء والسين ليس أصلا يقاس عليه ولم يأت فيه إلا كلمتان ما أحسبهما من كلام العرب وقد ذكرناهما لذكر الخليل إياهماL1960
- أيضالهمزة والياء والضاد كلمة واحدة تدل على الرجوع والعودL1969
- أيقالهمزة والياء والقاف كلمة واحدة لا يقاس عليهاL1971
- أيكالهمزة والياء والكاف أصل واحد وهي اجتماع شجرL1975
- أينالهمزة والياء والنون يدل على الإعياء وقرب الشيء أما الأول فالأين الإعياء ويقال لا يبنى منه فعل وقدL1995
- أييالهمزة والياء والياء أصل واحد وهو النظرQ 382 · L2001
- بيءالباء والياء والباء والهمزة ليست أصولا تقاس لأنها كلمات مفردة يقولون هي بن بي لمن لا يعرف ويقولون بأبأت الصبي قلت له باباL2327
- بنز—L2334
- بتكالباء والتاء والكاف أصل واحد وهو القطعQ 1 · L2343
- بثرالباء والثاء والراء أصل واحد وهو انقطاع الشيء مع دوام وسهولة وكثرةL2358
- بثعالباء والثاء والعين كلمة واحدة تدل على مثل الأصل الذي قبلهاL2365
- بثقالباء والثاء والقاف يدل على التفتح في الماء وغيره البثق بثق الماء وربما كسرت فقيل بثق والفتح أفصحL2366
- بثنالباء والثاء والنون أصل واحد يدل على السهولة واللينL2368
- بثاالباء والثاء والألف كلمة واحدة لا يقاس عليها ولا يشتق منها وهي البثاء أرض سهلة وهي أرض بعينهاL2372
- بجحالباء والجيم والحاء كلمة واحدةL2376
- بحرالباء والحاء والراءQ 42 · L2385
- بجسالباء والجيم والسين تفتح الشيء بالماء خاصةQ 1 · L2389
- بجلالباء والجيم واللام أصول ثلاثة أحدها الكفاف والاحتساب والآخر الشيء العظيم والثالث عرقL2396
- بحرالباء والحاء والراءQ 42 · L2412
- بحنالباء والحاء والنون أصل واحد يدل على الضخمL2444
- بحتالباء والحاء والتاء يدل على خلوص الشيء وألا يخلطه غيرهL2446
- بحثالباء والحاء والثاء أصل واحد يدل على إثارة الشيءQ 1 · L2454
In the sister scriptsHebrew א י צSyriac ܐ ܝ ܥ
| Arabic | أ ي ض |
| Hebrew | א י צ |
| Syriac | ܐ ܝ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩱 𐩺 𐩳 |
| Phoenician | 𐤀 𐤉 𐤑 |
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.
Lenses
AIClassical lexiconAl-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) defines al-ayḍ as a thing's becoming something else, its shift out of one state into another, illustrated by hair turning from black to white (āḍa sawādu shaʿrihi bayāḍan), and glosses ifʿal hādhā ayḍan as 'do this again, as before.' Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ), transmitting Ibn al-Sikkīt, makes ayḍan simply the maṣdar of āḍa yaʾīḍu in the sense of ʿāda, 'to return/recur';well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl (al-ʿAyn) defines al-ayḍ as a thing's becoming something else, its shift out of one state into another, illustrated by hair turning from black to white (āḍa sawādu shaʿrihi bayāḍan), and glosses ifʿal hādhā ayḍan as 'do this again, as before.' Al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ), transmitting Ibn al-Sikkīt, makes ayḍan simply the maṣdar of āḍa yaʾīḍu in the sense of ʿāda, 'to return/recur'; āḍa ilā ahlihi is 'he returned to his family,' āḍa kadhā is 'it became such.' Ibn Fāris (Maqāyīs) reduces the root to one meaning only, al-rujūʿ wa-l-ʿawd, deriving the common adverb aydan directly from this sense of coming back to a prior statement. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān) fuses both strands, glossing āḍa yaʾīḍu ayḍan as sāra wa-ʿāda and citing a hadith on the eclipse where the sun āḍat, 'became' (dark) — the transformation-sense surviving beside the return-sense. Lane keeps return/recur as the primary gloss, with fa'altu kadhā ayḍan explained as maṣdar of both ʿāda and rajaʿa.
Draws on: al-Khalil:cayn · al-Jawhari:sihah · Ibn Faris:maqayis · Ibn Manzur:lisan · Lane
Letters & soundNo entry is supplied for hamza in either the Akbarian planetary-sphere scheme or al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-meanings, so nothing can be said of it here.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
No entry is supplied for hamza in either the Akbarian planetary-sphere scheme or al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-meanings, so nothing can be said of it here. Yāʾ corresponds to the First Heaven in the Akbarian scheme, and for al-Dabbāgh marks the vocative (calling out) and sometimes emphasis. Ḍād corresponds to the Second Heaven, and for al-Dabbāgh expresses health and freedom from affliction. These are correspondences from a specific mystical letter-symbolism tradition, not etymology; mainstream linguistics would treat them as suggestive at most.
Draws on: Ibn Arabi:akbari198 · al-Dabbagh:fatha
Root structureIbn Fāris's chapter places أيض among the hamza-yāʾ nucleus siblings: أيد (strength/protection), أيس (unclassifiable, only two attested words), أيق (unclassifiable), أيك (a thicket of trees), أين (fatigue, and by extension nearness), أيي (looking/gazing).uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's chapter places أيض among the hamza-yāʾ nucleus siblings: أيد (strength/protection), أيس (unclassifiable, only two attested words), أيق (unclassifiable), أيك (a thicket of trees), أين (fatigue, and by extension nearness), أيي (looking/gazing). Of the six permutations of the letters, only أيض itself is attested with the sense of return; ضأي and ضيأ are marked attested but carry no recorded gloss in the sources at hand, while أضي, يأض, يضأ are unattested. Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation would invite tracing a shared thread across these six orderings, but the missing glosses for the ḍ-initial forms leave any such link unproven — juxtaposition only.
Draws on: Ibn Faris:nucleus · permutations · Ibn Jinni:khasais
- Ibn Jinnī, al-Khaṣāʾiṣ (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsThis is a hollow root, ʾ-y-ḍ, and no confident cognate for 'return' built on these three consonants is attested in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, Geʿez, or Old South Arabian;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
This is a hollow root, ʾ-y-ḍ, and no confident cognate for 'return' built on these three consonants is attested in Hebrew, Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian, Geʿez, or Old South Arabian; the common Semitic root for 'return' is built instead on š-w-b / t-w-b. The word appears to be a native Arabic formation rather than a borrowing, and no loanword route can be proposed on present evidence.
Draws on: comparative Semitic
Reference