Root · 8 in the Quran · 120 in 18 texts of the library
دللIbn Fāris gives two distinct nuclei for this root: ibāna/indication of a thing by a sign … (root dll)
الدال واللام أصلان أحدهما إبانة الشيء بأمارة تتعلمها والآخر اضطراب في الشيء
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha · English rendering AI
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of د ل ل that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
28 words7 verbs5 verbal nouns2 participles2 intensives and elatives11 other nouns1 relative or abstract
- دَلَّhe, or it, directed
- دَلِيلevidence; proof
- دَلَالَةmeaning; indication
- اِسْتِدْلالargumentation; inference
- تَدَلَّلَthey exalt themselves against the Sultán
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7دَلَّ · دَلَّلَ · أَدَلَّ
The root as an action: the bare Form I, and the Forms made by adding letters before, inside or after the root.grammar →
Verbal nouns5دَلَالَة · اِسْتِدْلال · اِدِّلَال
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- دَلَالَةmeaning; indicationautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- اِسْتِدْلالargumentation; inferenceautoForm Xlibrary ×3
- اِدِّلَالForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- دَلَلForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- دُلُولَةForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles2مَدْلُول · مُدَلِّل
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative2دَلِيل · دَلَّال
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns11تَدَلْدَل · دَلَال · دَلْدَال
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 15 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-dall (الدل) is dalāl al-marʾah (دلال المرأة), a woman's coquettish boldness, when she shows dalla (تدللت) toward her husband, displaying to him boldness in coquetry and charming manner, as though she were contrary to
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-dalīl (الدليل): that by which one infers [a guide/indicator].
al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowIbn Fāris · 395Dāl and lām [form] two roots: one is the clarification of a thing by means of a sign that is learned, and the other is unsteady swaying/agitation in a thing.
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
AI AI translation of the Arabic belowal-Rāghib · 502Al-dalāla (الدلالة) is that by which one arrives at knowledge of a thing — such as the indication of words upon meaning, the indication of gestures, symbols, writing, and finger-reckoning in arithmetic (al-ʿuqūd fī al-ḥi
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 · 711Adalla ʿalayhi wa-tadallala (أدل عليه وتدلل): he relaxed/felt at ease [and presumed].
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 definitions6 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt
الاستدلال
هو تقرير الدليل لإثبات المدلول، سواء كان ذلك من الأثر إلى المؤثر أو العكس، أو من أحد الأثرين إلى الآخر.
Al-istidlāl (الاستدلال): it is the establishing of the proof (al-dalīl) in order to prove the thing indicated (al-madlūl), whether that be from the effect to the cause, or the reverse, or from one of two effects to the other. AI
الدليل
في اللغة هو المرشد، وما به الإرشاد، وفي الاصطلاح: هو الذي يلزم من العلم به العلم بشيء آخر. وحقيقة الدليل، هو ثبوت الأوسط للأصغر، واندراج الأصغر تحت الأوسط.
Al-dalīl (الدليل): in language it is the guide, and that by which guidance is given. In technical usage: it is that from knowledge of which knowledge of something else necessarily follows. The reality of al-dalīl is the establishment of the middle term for the minor term, and the inclusion of the minor term under the middle term. AI
الدليل الإلزامي
ما سلم عند الخصم، سواء كان مستدلا عند الخصم أولا.
Al-dalīl al-ilzāmī (الدليل الإلزامي, 'the binding proof'): that which is conceded by the opponent, whether or not it also serves as a proof for [the proponent] with the opponent. AI
الدلالة
هي كون الشيء بحالة يلزم من العلم به العلم بشيء آخر، والشيء الأول هو الدال، والثاني هو المدلول، وكيفية دلالة اللفظ على المعنى باصطلاح علماء الأصول محصورة في عبارة النص، وإشارة النص، ودلالة النص، واقتضاء النص. ووجه ضبطه أن الحكم المستفاد من النظم إما أن يكون ثابتا بنفس النظم، أو لا، والأول: إن كان النظم مسوقا له، فهو العبارة، وإلا فالإشارة، والثاني: إن كان الحكم مفهوما من اللفظ لغة فهو الدلالة، أو شرعا فهو الاقتضاء؛ فدلالة النص عبارة عما ثبت بمعنى النص لغة لا اجتهادا. فقوله: لغة، أي يعرفه كل من يعرف هذا اللسان بمجرد سماع اللفظ من غير تأمل، كالنهي عن التأفيف في قوله تعالى: {فلا تقل لهما أف} ، يوقف به على حرمة الضرب وغيره مما فيه نوع من الأذى بدون الاجتهاد.
Al-dalāla (الدلالة): it is a thing's being in a state such that knowledge of it necessarily entails knowledge of something else; the first thing is al-dāll (الدال, the indicator) and the second is al-madlūl (المدلول, the thing indicated). The manner in which a word indicates its meaning, according to the terminology of the scholars of legal theory (uṣūl), is confined to: the explicit statement of the text (ʿibārat al-naṣṣ, عبارة النص), the allusion of the text (ishārat al-naṣṣ, إشارة النص), the [inferred] indication of the text (dalālat al-naṣṣ, دلالة النص), and the requirement of the text (iqtiḍāʾ al-naṣṣ, اقتضاء النص). The way to define this is: the ruling derived from the wording is either established by the wording itself or not. In the first case, if the wording was specifically uttered for it, it is 'the explicit statement' (al-ʿibāra); otherwise it is 'the allusion' (al-ishāra). In the second case, if the ruling is understood from the word by virtue of language, it is 'the [inferred] indication' (al-dalāla); if by virtue of the Sacred Law, it is 'the requirement' (al-iqtiḍāʾ). Thus dalālat al-naṣṣ (دلالة النص) refers to what is established by the meaning of the text through language, not through independent legal reasoning (ijtihād). His saying 'through language' means that anyone who knows this tongue recognizes it merely upon hearing the word, without reflection — as with the prohibition of saying 'uff' in His saying, Most High: {So do not say to them 'uff'}... [entry continues] AI
الدلالة اللفظية الوضعية
هي كون اللفظ بحيث متى أطلق أو تخيل فهم منه معناه، للعلم بوضعه، وهي المنقسمة إلى المطابقة، والتضمن، والالتزام؛ لأن اللفظ الدال بالوضع يدل على تمام ما وضع له بالمطابقة، وعلى جزئه بالتضمن، وعلى ما يلزمه في الذهن بالالتزام كالإنسان، فإنه يدل على تمام الحيوان الناطق بالمطابقة، وعلى جزئه بالتضمن، وعلى قابل العلم بالالتزام.
Al-dalāla al-lafẓiyya al-waḍʿiyya (الدلالة اللفظية الوضعية, 'conventional verbal indication'): it is the word's being such that, whenever it is uttered or conceived, its meaning is understood from it, on account of knowledge of its [linguistic] convention (waḍʿ). It divides into al-muṭābaqa (المطابقة, 'correspondence'), al-taḍammun (التضمن, 'implication'), and al-iltizām (الالتزام, 'necessary concomitance'); for the word that indicates by convention indicates the whole of what it was set to denote by correspondence, a part of it by implication, and whatever is necessarily connected to it in the mind by necessary concomitance — like [the word] 'human' (al-insān, الإنسان), which indicates the complete [notion of] 'rational animal' by correspondence, a part of it by implication, and 'receptive of knowledge' by necessary concomitance. AI
المدلول
هو الذي يلزم من العلم بشيء آخر العلم به.
Al-madlūl (المدلول, 'the thing indicated'): it is that whose knowledge necessarily follows from knowledge of something else. AI
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all their orders. Choose one.
د ل ل
الدال واللام أصلان أحدهما إبانة الشيء بأمارة تتعلمها والآخر اضطراب في الشيء
d-l: two roots: one is making a thing clear by a sign that you learn, and the other is agitation in a thing. AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Quran ×8
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
- دdāltongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. Jinnī
- لlāmedge of the tongue · voiced, in betweenI. 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
د
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا مخرج الطاء، والدال، والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26559 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأصول الثنايا، مخرج الطاء والدال والتاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the roots of the front teeth is the place of the ṭāʾ, the dāl and the tāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 982 ↗
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 ↗
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 ↗
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
د
Level of existence: السماء الدنيا · the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā)
Divine Name: المبين · the Clarifier (al-Mubīn)
Lunar mansion: الأكليل · al-Iklīl
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64682Spheres 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 2582ل
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 2577ل
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 2577Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
د
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى خارج عن الذات.
It is an indication of something external to the self.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى ما هو قليل أو قبيح ومعه غضب فيهما.
It is an indication of what is small or ugly, accompanied by anger in both cases.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما في الذات أو إلى ما هو داخل عليها أو إلى ما هو قريب منها.
It is an indication of what is in the self, or what is entering upon it, or what is near to it.
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.
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.
Two-letter nucleus14 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterد 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 10061 ↗
- دلمالدال واللام أصل يدل على طول وتهدل في سواد فالأدلم من الرجال الطويل الأسود وكذلك هو من الجمال والجبال وزعم ناس أن الديلم سواد الليل وظلمته فأما قول عنL10062
- دلهالدال واللام والهاء أصيل يدل على ذهاب الشيءL10069
- دلىالدال واللام والحرف المعتل أصل يدل على مقاربة الشيء ومداناته بسهولة ورفقL10070
- دلبالدال واللام والباء ليس بشيء والدلب فيماL10085
- دلثالدال واللام والثاء أصل يدل على الاندفاعL10086
- دلجالدال واللام والجيم أصل يدل على سير ومجىء وذهاب ولعل ذلك أكثر ما كان في خفية فالدلج سير الليل ويقال أدلج القوم إذا قطعوا الليل كله سيرا فإن خرجوا من آL10090
- دلحالدال واللام والحاء أصيل يدل على مشى وثقل المحمول يقول العرب دلح البعير بحمله إذا مشى بثقل وسحابة دلوح كأنها تجري بمائها ومن ذلك حديث سلمان ( أنه اشترL10100
- دلسالدال واللام والسين أصل يدل على ستر وظلمة فالدلس دلس الظلام ومنه قولهم لا يدالس أي لا يخادع ومنه التدليس في البيع وهو أن يبيعه من غير إبانة عن عيبه فكL10106
- دلصالدال واللام والصاد تدل على لين ونعمة فالدلاص الدرع اللينة ويقولون دلصت السيول الصخرة كأنها لينتهاL10111
- دلظالدال واللام والظاء أصيل يدل على الدفعL10115
- دلعالدال واللام والعين أصيل يدل على خروج تقول دلع لسانه خرج ودلعه هو إذا أخرجه والدليع الطريق السهل ويقال اندلع بطنه إذا أخرج أمامهL10117
- دلفالدال واللام والفاء أصل واحد يدل على تقدم في رفق فالدليف المشي الرويدL10119
- دلقالدال واللام والقاف أصل واحد مطرد يدل على خروج الشيء وتقدمه فالناقة الدلوق هي التي تكسر أسنانها فالماء يخرج من فمها ويقال اندلق السيف من غمده إذا خرج L10122
- دلكالدال واللام والكاف أصل واحد يدل على زوال شيء عن شيء ولا يكون إلا برفقQ 1 · L10129
In the sister scriptsHebrew ד ל לSyriac ܕ ܠ ܠ
| Arabic | د ل ل |
| Hebrew | ד ל ל |
| Syriac | ܕ ܠ ܠ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩵 𐩡 𐩡 |
| Phoenician | 𐤃 𐤋 𐤋 |
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's entry is concrete and social: a woman's dalāl is a feigned defiance toward her husband, a hawk 'dalls' on its prey, a man 'dalls' over his peers in battle by overpowering them, and dāla is the boldness one takes with a person to whom one is close.well attested
The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.
Al-Khalīl's entry is concrete and social: a woman's dalāl is a feigned defiance toward her husband, a hawk 'dalls' on its prey, a man 'dalls' over his peers in battle by overpowering them, and dāla is the boldness one takes with a person to whom one is close. Al-Jawharī systematizes this into dalīl/dalāla as 'that by which one is guided,' pairs dāll with hady (calm, dignified bearing), and keeps the coquetry sense (dallat al-marʾa, tadallalat). Ibn Fāris then splits the root analytically into indication-by-sign and iḍṭirāb (wavering), deriving the coquetry sense from the second nucleus via the trembling movement (tamāyul) it involves, and citing dalladul (to dangle, waver) as the same root. Al-Rāghib abstracts dalāla into a general epistemic relation — whatever leads to knowledge of a thing, whether words, gestures, writing, or an unintended sign (like inferring life from a person's movement) — citing Q34:14. Ibn Manẓūr records the social-psychological register in full: iddalla/tadallul as inbisāṭ (expansive boldness born of trust and intimacy, per Ibn Durayd), crystallized in the proverb 'adilla fa-amill.' Lane's gloss, 'to direct, direct aright, guide,' is the settled abstraction of this trajectory.
Draws on: cayn · sihah · Ibn Fāris · mufradat · lisan · Lane
- al-Khalīl, Kitāb al-ʿAyn, s.v. د-ل-ل
- al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ, s.v. د-ل-ل
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, s.v. د-ل-ل
- al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt, s.v. د-ل-ل
- Ibn Manẓūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, s.v. د-ل-ل
- Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon, s.v. د-ل-ل
Letters & soundIn the given Akbarian correspondence, dāl marks the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā) and lām the third heaven;speculative
What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.
In the given Akbarian correspondence, dāl marks the lowest heaven (al-samāʾ al-dunyā) and lām the third heaven; al-Dabbāgh glosses dāl as 'an indication of something external to the self' and lām as 'the speaker's attaining of something great, an indication of something great.' The resonance with دلل is almost too neat: the root's very meaning is 'indication' (dalāla), and both its constituent letters are independently glossed as indication-bearing. This should be read as a suggestive coincidence in a symbolic system, not as an explanation of how the word came to mean what it means; mainstream historical linguistics would treat any such letter-symbolism as unverifiable.
Draws on: ibnJinni-imsas · akbari198 · dabbagh
- Ibn ʿArabī, letters and the Breath (data supplied)
- al-Dabbāgh, letter meanings (data supplied)
Root structureIbn Fāris's own dāl-lām chapter groups دلل beside دله (loss, distraction of mind) and دلي (nearing or approaching a thing with gentleness and ease) — the latter is suggestive, since 'guiding' is precisely a gentle bringing-near of someone toward a goal, though Ibn Fāris does not himself draw this connection.plausible
The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).
Ibn Fāris's own dāl-lām chapter groups دلل beside دله (loss, distraction of mind) and دلي (nearing or approaching a thing with gentleness and ease) — the latter is suggestive, since 'guiding' is precisely a gentle bringing-near of someone toward a goal, though Ibn Fāris does not himself draw this connection. Also nearby, دلس (concealment, darkness in a transaction) stands almost as a semantic antithesis to دلل: where dalāla discloses by a sign, dals conceals a defect. Of the possible permutations of the biliteral د-ل, only دلل itself is attested (لدل and للد occur nowhere), which limits the scope for Ibn Jinnī's greater derivation (al-ishtiqāq al-akbar) here to juxtaposition with its immediate chapter-neighbors rather than a cross-permutation argument.
Draws on: Ibn Fāris · permutations
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lugha, bāb د-ل
- Wiktionary Arabic root appendix (link not verified)
Semitic kin & loanwordsNo confident Semitic cognate for the 'guide, indicate' sense is established.uncertain
Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.
No confident Semitic cognate for the 'guide, indicate' sense is established. Hebrew dal/dalal ('low, hang down, be thin/poor') and the dangling/trembling sense in Ibn Fāris's second nucleus (دلدل) show a plausible formal parallel, but this touches only the iḍṭirāb branch of the Arabic root, not the dominant dalāla-as-sign branch, and the semantic distance is large enough that certainty is not warranted. There is no reason to treat دلل as a loanword; it behaves as an inner-Arabic biliteral development.
Draws on: comparative
- Brown–Driver–Briggs, s.v. דלל
Quranic exegesisAt Q34:14, exegetes read 'mā dallahum ʿalā mawtihi illā dābbat al-arḍ' (nothing indicated his death to them but the earthworm) as the paradigm case of dalāla as a natural, unintended sign — al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāghib both use this verse to illustrate indication without an indicator's intent.well attested
How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.
At Q34:14, exegetes read 'mā dallahum ʿalā mawtihi illā dābbat al-arḍ' (nothing indicated his death to them but the earthworm) as the paradigm case of dalāla as a natural, unintended sign — al-Ṭabarī and al-Rāghib both use this verse to illustrate indication without an indicator's intent. At Q7:22, 'fa-dallāhumā bi-ghurūr' (Satan led them down/deceived them by delusion) is glossed by al-Ṭabarī and al-Zamakhsharī as guidance perverted into seduction — dalla here carries both the sense of leading and of a downward, deceptive movement. At Q20:40, Moses's sister's 'hal adullukum ʿalā man yakfuluh' (shall I guide you to one who will nurse him) is the plain guidance-sense. At Q25:45, the shadow is made to depend on the sun 'dalīlan,' and al-Rāzī uses this as a stock example of dalīl/madlūl reasoning: the sun functions as the sign by which the shadow's extension is known.
Philosophy & kalāmDalīl and dalāla become technical terms in uṣūl al-fiqh, logic, and kalām: dalāla al-lafẓ ʿalā al-maʿnā (a word's signification of its meaning) is analyzed by the logicians into muṭābaqa, taḍammun, and iltizām, building directly on al-Rāghib's general definition of dalāla as 'that by which one arrives at knowledge of a thing.' The mutakallimūn speak of dalīl al-ʿaql, rational proof, especially in arguments for God's existence from contingency (dalīl al-ḥudūth);plausible
The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.
Dalīl and dalāla become technical terms in uṣūl al-fiqh, logic, and kalām: dalāla al-lafẓ ʿalā al-maʿnā (a word's signification of its meaning) is analyzed by the logicians into muṭābaqa, taḍammun, and iltizām, building directly on al-Rāghib's general definition of dalāla as 'that by which one arrives at knowledge of a thing.' The mutakallimūn speak of dalīl al-ʿaql, rational proof, especially in arguments for God's existence from contingency (dalīl al-ḥudūth); a dalīl is that whose sound consideration (al-naẓar al-ṣaḥīḥ fīhi) leads to knowledge of the madlūl.
Draws on: mufradat · usul
- al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī, al-Mufradāt, s.v. د-ل-ل
Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī writes that God is exalted above being known through speculative reasoning on contingent things (al-naẓar fī al-ḥādith);well attested
The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.
In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī writes that God is exalted above being known through speculative reasoning on contingent things (al-naẓar fī al-ḥādith); rather He 'showed us His signs in ourselves, so that we sought indication (istadlalnā) by ourselves upon Him.' The key move is that the human being is not merely a sign among signs but becomes the very content of the indication: 'we did not describe Him with any attribute except that we ourselves were that attribute.' This reworks dalāla epistemically — the insān kāmil is the dalīl through which the cosmos comes to know God, because divine attributes are disclosed precisely through, and as, human attributes.
Draws on: fassAdam
- Ibn ʿArabī, Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam, Faṣṣ Ādam (excerpt supplied)
Reference