Root · 3 in the Quran · 2 in 2 texts of the library
ركض (root rkd)
الراء والكاف والضاد أصل واحد يدل على حركة إلى قدم أو تحريك
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ر ك ض that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
19 words5 verbs1 verbal noun4 participles3 places and instruments1 intensive or elative4 other nouns1 plural
- رَكَضَhe moved, or struck with, his leg, or foot
- رَاكَضَhe contended with him in a race, each making his horse to run
- تَرَاكَضَthey went forth contending together in urging their horses
- مُرْتَكَضthe place in which water collects
- مَرْكَضthe part of the flank of a horse which the rider strikes with his heel or …
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs5رَكَضَ · رَاكَضَ · أَرْكَضَ
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 يَفْعُلُ (a – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- رَكَضَhe moved, or struck with, his leg, or footLaneForm IQurʾān ×3library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- رَاكَضَhe contended with him in a race, each making his horse to runLaneForm IIILane
- أَرْكَضَForm IVLane
- تَرَاكَضَthey went forth contending together in urging their horsesLaneForm VILane
- اِرْتَكَضَLane: see Form VIForm VIIILane
Verbal nouns1رَكْض
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles4رَاكِض · مَرْكُوض · مُرْتَكَض
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Place, time and instrument3مَرْكَض · مِرْكَض · مِرْكَضَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative1رَكُوض
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- رَكُوضintensive (faʿūl)Lane
Other nouns4رَكْضَة · تَرْكَضَى · رَكَّاضَة
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
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 · 395الراء والكاف والضاد أصل واحد يدل على حركة إلى قدم أو تحريك يقال ركض الرجل دابته وذلك ضربه إياها برجليه لتتقدم وكثر حتى قيل ركض الفرس وليس بالأصل وارتكاض الصبي اضطرابه في بطن أمه قال الخليل وجعل الركض للطير في طيرانها ويق
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
Letters & sound
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- كkāfback of the tongue · voiceless, stopSīb. · 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
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 ↗
ك
ومن أسفل من موضع القاف من اللسان قليلا ومما يليه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج الكاف
From a little lower on the tongue than the qāf's place, and the upper palate next to it, is the place of the kāf. Sībawayh, lines 26551–26552 ↗
ومن أسفل من ذلك وأدنى إلى مقدم الفم مخرج الكاف
From lower than that and nearer the front of the mouth is the place of the kāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 973 ↗
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
ر
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 2582ك
Level of existence: الكرسي والقدمين · the Footstool and the two Feet
Divine Name: الشكور · al-Shakūr, the Grateful
Lunar mansion: النثرة · al-Nathra
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62083Spheres 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
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.
ك
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حقيقة العبودية الكاملة.
It is an indication of the reality of perfect servanthood.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العبد الأسود أو القبيح.
It is the black or ugly slave/servant.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى إضافة العبودية إليك، وقال مرة أخرى: فهي إشارة منك إليك بالعبودية.
It is an indication of attributing servanthood to you. On another occasion he said: it is an indication from you to yourself of servanthood.
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 nucleus10 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterر ك
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 11810 ↗
- ركلالراء والكاف واللام أصل يدل على جنس من الضرب بالرجلL11811
- ركمالراء والكاف والميم أصل واحد يدل على تجمع الشيء تقول ركمت الشيء ألقيت بعضه على بعض وسحاب مرتكم وركام والركمة الطين المجموع ومرتكم الطريق سننه لأن الماQ 3 · L11816
- ركنالراء والكاف والنون أصل واحد يدل على قوة فركن الشيء جانبه الأقوى وهو يأوى إلى ركن شديد أي عز ومنعة ومن الباب ركنت إليه أركنه وهي كلمة نادرة على فعلت أQ 4 · L11819
- ركبالراء والكاف والباء أصل واحد مطرد منقاس وهو علو شيء شيئاQ 15 · L11837
- ركحالراء والكاف والخاء أصل واحد وهو يدل على إنابة إلى شيء ورجوع إليهL11854
- ركدالراء والكاف والدال أصل يدل على سكونQ 1 · L11861
- ركزالراء والكاف والزاء أصلان أحدهما إثبات شيء في شيء يذهب سفلا والآخر صوتQ 1 · L11865
- ركسالراء والكاف والسين أصل واحد وهو قلب الشيء على رأسه ورد أوله على آخرهQ 2 · L11871
- ركضالراء والكاف والضاد أصل واحد يدل على حركة إلى قدم أو تحريكQ 3 · L11877
- ركعالراء والكاف والعين أصل واحد يدل على انحناء في الإنسان وغيرهQ 13 · L11882
In the sister scriptsHebrew ר כ צSyriac ܪ ܟ ܥ
| Arabic | ر ك ض |
| Hebrew | ר כ צ |
| Syriac | ܪ ܟ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩧 𐩫 𐩳 |
| Phoenician | 𐤓 𐤊 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.
Reference