Root · 0 in the Quran · 86 in 14 texts of the library
زمن (root zmn)
الزاء والميم والنون أصل واحد يدل على وقت من الوقت
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ز م ن that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
16 words3 verbs1 verbal noun2 participles2 intensives and elatives5 other nouns1 plural2 relatives and abstracts
- زَمَانtime; duration
- زَمَنtime; period
- زَمانِيّtemporal; time
- أَزْمان—
- أَزْمَنَhe, or it, continued a long time
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs3زَمِنَ · زَامَنَ · أَزْمَنَ
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: فَعِلَ يَفْعَلُ (i – a; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns1زَمَن
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- زَمَنtime; periodautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
Participles2مُزْمَن · مُزْمِن
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative2زَمِين · زُمَيْن
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns5زَمَان · زَمَانَة · زَمِن
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals1أَزْمان
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- أَزْمانbroken plural of زَمَنlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
Relative and abstract2زَمانِيّ · زَمَانِيَّة
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- زَمانِيّtemporal; timeautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×2
- زَمَانِيَّةwhileLaneabstract noun (-iyya)Lane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 11 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 · 395الزاء والميم والنون أصل واحد يدل على وقت من الوقت من ذلك الزمان وهو الحين قليله وكثيره يقال زمان وزمن والجمع أزمان وأزمنة قال الشااعر في الزمن : — وكنت امرأ زمنا بالعراق … عفيف المناخ طويل التغن … وقال في الأزمان : — أزم
Ibn Fāris (d. 395/1004), Maqāyīs al-Lugha. Seeks each root's original sense (aṣl).
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
ز م ن
الزاء والميم والنون أصل واحد يدل على وقت من الوقت
z-m-n is one root indicating a period of time. 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
- زzāytongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiced, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- مmīmbetween the lips · voiced, in betweenSīb. · 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
ز
ومما بين طرف اللسان وفويق الثنايا مخرج الزاي، والسين، والصاد
From between the tip of the tongue and just above the front teeth is the place of the zāy, the sīn and the ṣād. Sībawayh, line 26560 ↗
ومما بين الثنايا وطرف اللسان، مخرج الصاد والزاي والسين
From between the front teeth and the tip of the tongue is the place of the ṣād, the zāy and the sīn. Ibn Jinnī, line 983 ↗
م
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 ↗
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
ز
Level of existence: ما يظهر في ركن الهواء · what appears in the pillar (element) of air
Divine Name: الحي · the Living (al-Ḥayy)
Lunar mansion: الشولة · al-Shawla
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64951Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 7 line 2570 ↗
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 2577م
Level of existence: الإنسان · the human being
Divine Name: الجامع · al-Jāmiʿ, the Gatherer
Lunar mansion: المؤخر · al-Muʾakhkhar
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62119Spheres 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 2582ن
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
ز
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم للشيء الذي إذا دخل على الشيء ضره، وقال مرة: اسم للشيء وما يتحرز منه.
It is a name for the thing that harms another thing when it enters upon it. On one occasion he said: a name for the thing and what one guards against.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى القبيح الذي فيه ضرر كالكبائر.
It is an indication of the ugly thing that contains harm, such as the major sins.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى القبيح الذي لا ضرر فيه كالصغائر والشبهات والنجاسة.
It is an indication of the ugly thing that contains no harm, such as minor sins, doubtful matters and ritual impurity.
م
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي جميع المكونات.
It is all created beings.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي العزيز القليل كماء العين، ومنه قيل مومو.
It is the precious, scarce thing, like the water of the eye; from it comes the expression 'mūmū'.
With kasra ـِ
فهي نور الذات ظاهرا كما في العين، وباطنا كما في القلب.
It is the light of the self, outwardly as in the eye and inwardly as in the heart.
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 nucleus24 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterز م
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 13110 ↗
- زمنالزاء والميم والنون أصل واحد يدل على وقت من الوقتL13111
- زمتالزاء والميم والتاء ليس أصلا لأن فيه كلمة وهي من باب الإبدال يقولون رجل زميت وزميت أي سكيت والزاء في هذا مبدلة من صاد والأصل الصمتL13118
- زمحالزاء والميم والحاء كلمة واحدة يقولون للرجل القصير زمحL13123
- زمخالزاء والميم والخاء ليس بأصلL13124
- زمرالزاء والميم والراء أصلان أحدهما يدل على قلة الشيء والآخر جنس من الأصواتQ 2 · L13126
- زمعالزاء والميم والعين أصل واحد يدل على الدون والقلة والذلةL13133
- زمقالزاء والميم والقاف ليس بشيء وإن كانوا يقولون زمق شعره إذا نتفه فإن صح فالأصل زبق وقد ذكرL13145
- زمكالزاء والميم والكاف ذكر ابن دريد وغيره أن الزاء والميم والكاف تدل على تداخل الشىء بعضه في بعضL13146
- زملالزاء والميم واللام أصلان أحدهما يدل على حمل ثقل من الأثقال والآخر صوتQ 1 · L13148
- زنىالزاء والنون والحرف المعتل لا تتضايف ولا قياس فيها لواحدة على أخرىQ 9 · L13160
- زنجالزاء والنون والجيم ليس بشيء على أنهم يقولون الزنج العطش ولا قياس لذلكL13170
- زنحالزاء والنون والحاء كالذي قبله وذكر بعضهم أن التزنح التفتح في الكلامL13171
- زندالزاء والنون والدال أصلان أحدهما عضو من الأعضاء ثم يشبه به والآخر دليل ضيق في شيءL13172
- زنرالزاء والنون والراء ليس بأصل لأن النون لا يكون بعدها راء على أن في الباب كلمة يقولون إن الزنانير الحصى الصغار إذا هبت عليها الريح سمعت لها صوتا والزناL13180
- زنكالزاء والنون والكاف ليس أصلا ولا قياس له وقد حكى الزونك القصير الدميمL13186
- زنمالزاء والنون والميم أصل يدل على تعليق شيء بشيءQ 1 · L13187
- زهوالزاء والهاء والحرف المعتل أصلان أحدهما يدل على كبر وفخر والآخر على حسنL13193
- زهدالزاء والهاء والدال أصل يدل على قلة الشيء والزهيد الشيء القليل وهو مزهد قليل المال وقال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ( أفضل الناس مؤمن مزهد ) هو المقلQ 1 · L13204
- زهرالزاء والهاء والراء أصل واحد يدل على حسن وضياء وصفاءQ 1 · L13212
- زهمالزاء والهاء والميم أصل واحد يدل على سمن وشحم وما أشبه ذلكL13222
- زهقالزاء والهاء والقاف أصل واحد يدل على تقدم ومضي وتجاوزQ 5 · L13228
- زهفالزاء والهاء والفاء أصل يدل على ذهاب الشيءL13242
- زهلالزاء والهاء واللام كلمة تدل على ملاسة الشيءL13248
- زهكالزاء والهاء والكاف ليس فيه شيء إلا أن ابن دريد ذكر أنهم يقولون زهكت الريح التراب مثل سهكتL13249
In the sister scriptsHebrew ז מ נSyriac ܙ ܡ ܢ
| Arabic | ز م ن |
| Hebrew | ז מ נ |
| Syriac | ܙ ܡ ܢ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩸 𐩣 𐩬 |
| Phoenician | 𐤆 𐤌 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