Root · 0 in the Quran · 1 in 1 text of the library
خشن (root khshn)
الخاء والشين والنون أصل واحد وهو خلاف اللين
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of خ ش ن that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
15 words5 verbs4 verbal nouns1 intensive or elative5 other nouns
- خَشِنrough, harsh, or coarse
- خَشُنَit was, or became, rough, harsh, or coarse
- خَشَّنَhe made it rough, harsh, or coarse
- خَاشَنَhe was rough, harsh, or coarse, to him
- اِسْتَخْشَنَhe found it or esteemed it rough, harsh, or coarse
The whole family4 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs5خَشُنَ · خَشَّنَ · خَاشَنَ
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 (u; the imperfect from the Quranic Arabic Corpus)
- خَشُنَit was, or became, rough, harsh, or coarseLaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- خَشَّنَhe made it rough, harsh, or coarseLaneForm IILaneIbn Fāris
- خَاشَنَhe was rough, harsh, or coarse, to himLaneForm IIILane
- تَخَشَّنَLane: see Form IForm VLane
- اِسْتَخْشَنَhe found it or esteemed it rough, harsh, or coarseLaneForm XLane
Verbal nouns4تَخْشِين · خُشُونَة · خُشْنَة
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative1أَخْشَن
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns5خَشِن · اخشوشن · أُخَيْشِن
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 9 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
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 · 395الخاء والشين والنون أصل واحد وهو خلاف اللين يقال شيء خشن ولا يكادون يقولون في الحجر إلا الأخشن قال : — و الحجر الأخشن والثنايه … واخشوشن الرجل إذا تماتن وترك الترفة وكتيبة خشناء أي كثيرة السلاح
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
Letters & sound
- خkhāʾtop of the throat · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- شshīnmiddle of the tongue · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- نnūntip of the tongue · 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 ↗
ش
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 ↗
ن
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان ما بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى وما فويق الثنايا مخرج النون
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 and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Sībawayh, lines 26555–26556 ↗
ومن طرف اللسان بينه وبين ما فويق الثنايا، مخرج النون
From the tip of the tongue, between it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Ibn Jinnī, line 979 ↗
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 ↗
ش
Level of existence: فلك الكواكب الثابتة والجنات · the sphere of the fixed stars and the Gardens
Divine Name: المقدر · al-Muqaddir, the Determiner
Lunar mansion: الجبهة · al-Jabha
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62087Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
Nature (ch. 2)
السين والشين فطبعهما الحرارة واليبوسة
Sīn and shīn: their nature is heat and dryness.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2581ن
Level of existence: السماء الرابعة · the fourth heaven
Divine Name: النور · the Light (al-Nūr)
Lunar mansion: السماك · al-Simāk
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64663Spheres 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
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.
ش
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الرحمة التي لا يعقبها عذاب، وتكون إشارة إلى من خرجت منه النقمة ودخلت عليه الرحمة وتظهر.
It is an indication of mercy that is not followed by punishment. It also indicates one from whom vengeance has departed and upon whom mercy has entered and becomes manifest.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى عال في نفسه مع التعظيم.
It is an indication of something lofty in itself, with veneration.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي من طبعه الستر، وقد تكون الإشارة إلى ما هو مستور في القلب وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the thing whose nature is concealment; the indication may be to what is concealed in the heart and the like.
ن
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الخير الساكن في الذات الشاعل فيها.
It is the good that dwells in the self, kindling [al-shāʿil, as written] within it.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخير الكامل أو النور الساطع.
It is an indication of perfect good or radiant light.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى شيء يدركه المتكلم أو هو له.
It is an indication of something that the speaker perceives or that belongs to him.
Two-letter nucleus8 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterخ ش
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 8650 ↗
- خشعالخاء والشين والعين أصل واحد يدل على التطامنQ 17 · L8651
- خشفالخاء والشين والفاء يدل على الغموض والستر وما قارب ذلك فالخشاف طائر الليل معروف والمخشف الرجل الجريء على الليل ويقال خشف يخشف خشوفا إذا ذهب في الأرض وL8660
- خشلالخاء والشين واللام أصل واحد يدل على حقارة وصغرL8667
- خشمالخاء والشين والميم أصل واحد يدل على ارتفاع فالخيشوم الأنف والخشم داء يعتريه والرجل الغليظ الأنف خشام والمخشم الذي ثار الشراب في خيشومه فسكر وخياشيم اL8675
- خشنالخاء والشين والنون أصل واحد وهو خلاف اللينL8678
- خشىالخاء والشين والحرف المعتل يدل على خوف وذعر ثم يحمل عليه المجاز فالخشية الخوف ورجل خشيان وخاشاني فلان فخشيته أي كنت أشد خشية منه والمجاز قولهم خشيت بمQ 48 · L8682
- خشبالخاء والشين والباء أصل واحد يدل على خشونة وغلظ فالأخشب الجبل الغليظ ومن ذلك قول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في مكة ( لا تزول حتى يزول أخشباها ) يريد جبلQ 1 · L8688
- خشرالخاء والشين والراء يدل على رداءة ودون فالخشارة ما بقي على المائدة مما لا خير فيهL8697
In the sister scriptsHebrew ח ש נSyriac ܚ ܣ ܢ
| Arabic | خ ش ن |
| Hebrew | ח ש נ |
| Syriac | ܚ ܣ ܢ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩭 𐩦/𐩪 𐩬 |
| Phoenician | 𐤇 𐤔 𐤍 |
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