Root · 52 in the Quran · 113 in 19 texts of the library
خبرTwo senses per Ibn Fāris: al-ʿilm and lin/rakhāwa/ghazr. (root khbr)
الخاء والباء والراء أصلان
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of خ ب ر that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
39 words7 verbs8 verbal nouns4 participles3 places and instruments2 intensives and elatives10 other nouns3 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- خَبِيرknowing
- أَخْبَرَhe informed him, or told him, of what he had, or knew
- خَبَرnews; report
- إِخْبارnotification; communication
- أَخْبَار—
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7خَبُرَ · أَخْبَرَ · اِخْتَبَرَ
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: فَعُلَ يَفْعُلُ (u – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- خَبُرَhe knewLaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- أَخْبَرَhe informed him, or told him, of what he had, or knewLaneForm IVlibrary ×43Lane
- اِخْتَبَرَtest; exploreauto · Lane: see Form IForm VIIIlibrary ×2Lane
- اِسْتَخْبَرَhe asked, or sought, or desired, of him information, or news, or tidingsLaneForm Xlibrary ×1Lane
Verbal nouns8خَبَر · إِخْبار · خُبْر
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles4مُخْبِر · مُخْتَبَر · خَابِر
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مُخْبِرinformer; reporterautoactive, Form IVlibrary ×2
- مُخْتَبَرcamel having much fleshLanepassive, Form VIIIlibrary ×1Lane
- خَابِرactive, Form ILane
- مَخْبُورwell seasonedLanepassive, Form ILane
Place, time and instrument3مَخْبَر · مَخْبَرَة · مَخْبُرَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative2خَبِير · خَبُور
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- خَبِيرknowingLanequality (faʿīl)Qurʾān ×45library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- خَبُورthe lionLaneintensive (faʿūl)LaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns10أَخْبَار · خَبَار · خَبِر
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals3إِخْبارات · أَخَابِير · مُخْبِرات
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- إِخْباراتsound plural of إِخْبارlibrary ×2
- أَخَابِيرbroken plural of خَبَرLane
- مُخْبِراتsound plural of مُخْبِرlibrary ×1
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 21 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.
- Attested: مَخْبَرَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane)
- Attested: مَخْبُرَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane)
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
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 · 170Akhbartuhu (أخبرته) and khabbartuhu (خبرته) [both mean 'I informed him'].
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 · 393Al-khabr (الخبر) is the large waterskin, plural khubūr (خبور).
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Khā', bā', and rā' have two root meanings: the first is knowledge, and the second indicates softness, looseness, and abundance.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-khabar (الخبر) is knowledge of things known through report;
al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowLisān · 711Al-Khabīr (الخبير) is one of the names of Allah, Mighty and Exalted, [meaning] the One who knows what has been and what will be.
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 ↗
Technical definitions8 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الاختبار
فعل ما يظهر به الشيء، وهو من الله: إظهاره ما يعلم من أسرار خلقه، فإن علم الله تعالى قسمان: قسم يتقدم وجود الشيء في اللوح، وقسم يتأخر وجوده في مظاهر الخلق، والبلاء الذي هو الاختبار هو هذا القسم لا الأول.
Al-ikhtibār (الاختبار): an act by which a thing is made manifest; and from Allah, it is His causing to appear what He knows of the secrets of His creation. For the knowledge of Allah, Exalted is He, is of two kinds: a kind that precedes the existence of the thing, [inscribed] in the Preserved Tablet, and a kind whose occurrence comes after, in the manifestations of creation. And al-balā' (trial), which is al-ikhtibār (testing), belongs to this second kind, not the first. AI
الخبر
لفظ مجرد عن العوامل اللفظية مسند إلى ما تقدمه، لفظا نحو: زيد قائم، أو تقديرا نحو: أقائم زيد، وقيل: الخبر ما يصح السكوت عليه.
Al-khabar (الخبر) [the predicate]: an expression free of verbal governing factors (al-'awāmil al-lafẓiyya), attributed to what precedes it, either literally, as in 'Zaydun qā'imun' (زيد قائم) — Zayd is standing — or implicitly (taqdīran), as in 'a-qā'imun Zayd' (أقائم زيد) — Is Zayd standing? It is also said: al-khabar is that concerning which silence [i.e., stopping the utterance] is valid. AI
الخبر
هو الكلام المحتمل للصدق والكذب.
Al-khabar (الخبر): it is speech that admits of being either true or false. AI
خبر كان وأخواتها
هو المسند بعد دخول كان وأخواتها.
Khabar kāna wa-akhawātuhā (خبر كان وأخواتها) [the predicate of kāna and its sisters]: it is the predicate (al-musnad) after the entry of kāna and its sister [verbs]. AI
خبر إن وأخواتها
هو المسند بعد دخول إن وأخواتها.
Khabar inna wa-akhawātuhā (خبر إن وأخواتها) [the predicate of inna and its sisters]: it is the predicate after the entry of inna and its sister [particles]. AI
خبر لا التي لنفي الجنس
هو المسند بعد دخول "لا" هذه.
Khabar lā allatī li-nafy al-jins (خبر لا التي لنفي الجنس) [the predicate of the categorical-negation 'lā']: it is the predicate after the entry of this 'lā'. AI
خبر "ما" و"لا" المشبهتين ب "ليس"
هو المسند بعد دخولهما.
خبر الواحد
هو الحديث الذي يرويه الواحد أو الاثنان، فصاعدا؛ ما لم يبلغ الشهرة والتواتر.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
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
- خkhāʾtop of the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · 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
خ
وأدناها مخرجا من الفم: الغين والخاء
The nearest of them to the mouth in place: the ghayn and the khāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26549 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك مع أول الفم، مخرج الغين والخاء
From above that, at the start of the mouth, is the place of the ghayn and the khāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 971 ↗
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 ↗
ر
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا لانحرافه إلى اللام مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26557–26558 ↗
ومن مخرج النون غير أنه أدخل في ظهر اللسان قليلا، لانحرافه إلى اللام، مخرج الراء
From the place of the nūn, except that it goes a little further onto the back of the tongue, because it leans towards the lām, is the place of the rāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, lines 980–981 ↗
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
خ
Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 10 line 2573 ↗
ب
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 2582ر
Level of existence: السماء الخامسة · the fifth heaven
Divine Name: المصور · the Form-Giver (al-Muṣawwir)
Lunar mansion: الغفر · al-Ghafr
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64675Spheres 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
خ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي طول إلى النهاية مع رقة.
It is length to the utmost, together with fineness/thinness.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم لكمال في الحيوانات.
It is a name for a perfection in animals.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لكمال في الجمادات.
It is a name for a perfection in inanimate things.
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.
ر
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الخيرات الظاهرة والباطنة.
It is an indication of all goods, outward and inward.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الواحد في نفسه وهو ظاهر.
It is an indication of the one in itself, and it is manifest.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي فيه الروح وليس من بني آدم، أو إشارة إلى الروح نفسها.
It is an indication of a thing that has spirit in it but is not of the children of Adam, or an indication of the spirit itself.
Two-letter nucleus9 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterخ ب
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 9392 ↗
- خبتالخاء والباء والتاء أصل واحد يدل على خشوعQ 3 · L9393
- خبثالخاء والباء والثاء أصل واحد يدل على خلاف الطيبQ 16 · L9396
- خبجالخاء والباء والجيم ليس أصلا يقاس عليه وما أحسب فيه كلاما صحيحاL9399
- خبسالخاء والباء والسين أصل واحد يدل على أخذ الشيء قهرا وغلبةL9424
- خبصالخاء والباء والصاد قريب من الذي قبله يقولون خبص الشيء خلطهL9429
- خبطالخاء والباء والطاء أصل واحد يدل على وطء وضربQ 1 · L9430
- خبقالخاء والباء والقاف أصيل يدل على الترفع فالخبقي جنس من مرفوع السيرL9448
- خبلالخاء والباء واللام أصل واحد يدل على فساد الأعضاء فالخبل الجنونQ 2 · L9451
- خبأالخاء والباء والحرف المعتل والهمزة يدل على ستر الشيء فمن ذلك خبأت الشيء أخبؤه خبأ والخبأة الجارية تخبأ ومن الباب الخباء تقول أخبيت إخباء وخبيت وتخبيت Q 1 · L9467
In the sister scriptsHebrew ח ב רSyriac ܚ ܒ ܪ
| Arabic | خ ب ر |
| Hebrew | ח ב ר |
| Syriac | ܚ ܒ ܪ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩭 𐩨 𐩧 |
| Phoenician | 𐤇 𐤁 𐤓 |
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 gives akhbartuhu/khabbartuhu as synonyms, khabar as report (pl.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl gives akhbartuhu/khabbartuhu as synonyms, khabar as report (pl. akhbār), khabīr as the one who knows an affair, and khabr/mukhābara as sharecropping (planting for a half or third share); he also records khabār as loose, soft ground. Al-Jawharī adds khabr as a large waterskin (whence a she-camel copious in milk is called khabrāʾ), khabar (with fatḥa) as the report itself, and makhbar/makhbara as 'the opposite of ẓāhir appearance' — i.e. the inner reality contrasted with the outward manẓar. Ibn Fāris (maqāyīs) separates two roots explicitly, ʿilm and lin/rakhāwa/ghazr, and under the second discusses khabīr as akkār (tiller), because he softens and improves the soil, then addresses the forbidden mukhābara (sharecropping) and the dispute over whether the word derives from the place-name Khaybar. Al-Rāghib refines khabra as maʿrifa bi-bawāṭin al-amr, knowledge specifically of a thing's hidden inside, and reads the divine name khabīr in Q3:153 as either 'knower of the reports of your deeds' or 'knower of the inner realities of your affairs,' noting a third possibility that khabīr functions as mukhbir (one who informs), as with nabīʾ. Ibn Manẓūr and Lane confirm khabīr as a divine name meaning knower of what was and will be, and khabartu bi'l-amr as 'I knew it,' with the Lisān linking Q99's 'tuḥaddithu akhbārahā' to the earth 'reporting' what was done upon it.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha
- al-Rāghib, al-Mufradāt
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon
Letters & soundAl-Dabbāgh assigns khāʾ at fatḥa 'length to the utmost, together with fineness/thinness,' bāʾ at fatḥa 'the extremity of might or the extremity of abasement,' and rāʾ at fatḥa 'all goods, outward and inward.' Applied loosely to khabar, one could read this as knowledge stretched to its fullest fineness, touching both extremities and issuing in every good — but this is an after-the-fact fit, not something the sources apply to khabar by name.speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
Al-Dabbāgh assigns khāʾ at fatḥa 'length to the utmost, together with fineness/thinness,' bāʾ at fatḥa 'the extremity of might or the extremity of abasement,' and rāʾ at fatḥa 'all goods, outward and inward.' Applied loosely to khabar, one could read this as knowledge stretched to its fullest fineness, touching both extremities and issuing in every good — but this is an after-the-fact fit, not something the sources apply to khabar by name. Ibn ʿArabī's cosmological correlation gives rāʾ the fifth heaven, without a matching entry for khāʾ or bāʾ in the excerpt provided. As with all such letter-symbolism, mainstream linguistics regards this as suggestive at most, without independent evidentiary weight.
Draws on: ibn-jinni-imsas · akbari198 · dabbagh
- al-Dabbāgh, letter-meanings at fatḥa (as transmitted)
Root structureThe khāʾ-bāʾ nucleus sits beside khabt (humble submission), khabth (impurity, the opposite of ṭayyib), and khabaʾ (to hide, conceal) — the last of which, juxtaposed only, resonates with al-Rāghib's khabra as maʿrifa bi-bawāṭin al-amr: knowledge specifically of what is concealed.uncertain
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
The khāʾ-bāʾ nucleus sits beside khabt (humble submission), khabth (impurity, the opposite of ṭayyib), and khabaʾ (to hide, conceal) — the last of which, juxtaposed only, resonates with al-Rāghib's khabra as maʿrifa bi-bawāṭin al-amr: knowledge specifically of what is concealed. Among the permutations, Ibn Fāris himself flags barkh as possibly a Nabataean (Aramaic) loanword for baraka rather than native Arabic, a rare explicit loanword admission within this same permutation set; khirba/khurba (breach, ruin) and bakhr (rising odor/vapor) are also attested but semantically distant from khabar. No permutation here directly supports a semantic link beyond this juxtaposition with khabaʾ.
Draws on: maqayis-nucleus · maqayis-permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, root خ ب ر and permutations
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for khabar 'report, knowledge' is established;uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for khabar 'report, knowledge' is established; it is not to be confused with the different Arabic root ḥ-b-r (ḥibr, 'scholar, ink'), which is the plausible cognate of Hebrew ḥāḇēr/ḥaḇēr. Within the same permutation-set, Ibn Fāris himself records barkh as a probable Nabataean (Aramaic) borrowing for baraka, but this concerns a different lexeme from khabar, not khabar itself. No loanword claim is warranted for khabar on present evidence.
Draws on: no-confident-cognate
Quranic exegesisKhabīr occurs 45 times, almost always paired with another divine name (ʿalīm, ḥakīm) at verse-end;well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
Khabīr occurs 45 times, almost always paired with another divine name (ʿalīm, ḥakīm) at verse-end; al-Rāzī and al-Rāghib commonly distinguish it from ʿalīm as knowledge specifically of the bāṭin, the inner and hidden dimension of deeds, rather than general knowledge of things. At Q18:68 and 18:91, in the story of Mūsā and al-Khiḍr, khubran ('lam tuḥiṭ bihi khubran') is read by al-Zamakhsharī and al-Rāzī as full, grounded, experiential knowledge of a matter — stronger than mere ʿilm — which Mūsā is said to lack regarding al-Khiḍr's actions. At Q2:234 and 2:271, khabīr closes verses on legal and charitable matters as a reminder that God's knowledge penetrates the inward intention behind the outward act, a reading consistent with al-Rāghib's gloss.
Philosophy & kalāmIn uṣūl al-fiqh and kalām, khabar is a technical category of speech-act: a statement capable of truth or falsity (as opposed to inshāʾ, a performative utterance like command or oath), and khabar is further graded by transmission-reliability as mutawātir (reaching certainty) or āḥād (single-chain, probable).plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
In uṣūl al-fiqh and kalām, khabar is a technical category of speech-act: a statement capable of truth or falsity (as opposed to inshāʾ, a performative utterance like command or oath), and khabar is further graded by transmission-reliability as mutawātir (reaching certainty) or āḥād (single-chain, probable). This logical-linguistic classification underlies later discussions of prophetic report (khabar al-nabī) as a source of knowledge distinct from rational demonstration (burhān) or direct unveiling (kashf).
Draws on: usul-al-fiqh · kalam-epistemology
- al-Rāzī, al-Maḥṣūl, on khabar and inshāʾ
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī speaks of al-ikhbārāt al-ilāhiyya, the divine self-reports that come to us 'upon the tongues of the interpreters' (i.e., the prophets): God describes Himself to us by means of us.plausible
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī speaks of al-ikhbārāt al-ilāhiyya, the divine self-reports that come to us 'upon the tongues of the interpreters' (i.e., the prophets): God describes Himself to us by means of us. Khabar here names the specific mode of divine self-disclosure that is verbal report transmitted through prophetic mediation, distinguished from direct unveiling (kashf) or vision — a report whose content is nonetheless said to be 'known through us and from us,' so that everything attributed to God is simultaneously attributed to the receiving self.
Draws on: fassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam
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