Root · 2 in the Quran · 47 in 16 texts of the library
سعد (root sd)
السين والعين والدال أصل يدل على خير وسرور خلاف النحس فالسعد اليمن في الأمر والسعدان نبات من أفضل المرعى يقولون في …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of س ع د that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
32 words5 verbs4 verbal nouns3 participles5 intensives and elatives8 other nouns5 plurals2 relatives and abstracts
- سَعِيدhappy
- سَعَادَةhappiness
- سُعِدُhe was, or became, prosperous, fortunate, happy, or in a state of felicity
- أَسْعَدَmake happy
- سُعَداءplural of happy
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs5سُعِدُ · أَسْعَدَ · سَاعَدَ
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.”)
- سُعِدُhe was, or became, prosperous, fortunate, happy, or in a state of felicityLaneForm IQurʾān ×1library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- أَسْعَدَmake happyautoForm IVlibrary ×4Lane
- سَاعَدَhe aided, assisted, or helped, himLaneForm IIIlibrary ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- تَسَعَّدَForm VLane
- اِسْتَسْعَدَhe deemed it, or reckoned it, fortunate, auspicious, or luckyLaneForm XLane
Verbal nouns4مُساعَدَة · سَعْد · إِسْعَاد
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- مُساعَدَةassistance; supportautoForm III · Lane: inf. n.library ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- سَعْدgood luck; felicityautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- إِسْعَادForm III · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
- سُعُودForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
Participles3مَسْعُود · سَاعِد · مُساعِد
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مَسْعُودhappyautopassive, Form Ilibrary ×3Lane
- سَاعِدthe fore arm of a manLaneactive, Form ILaneIbn Fāris
- مُساعِدassistant; supporterautoactive, Form IIIlibrary ×1
Intensives, qualities and the elative5سَعِيد · أَسْعَد · سَعْدَان
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- سَعِيدhappyautoquality (faʿīl)Qurʾān ×1library ×15Lane
- أَسْعَدmore, and most, prosperous or fortunate or happyLaneelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×1Lane
- سَعْدَانintensive (faʿlān)LaneIbn Fāris
- سُعْدَانintensive (faʿlān)LaneIbn Fāris
- سُعَيْدquality (faʿīl)Lane
Other nouns8سَعَادَة · سَعْدَانَة · سُعُد
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals5سُعَداء · سُعُد · سُعُود
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 16 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 · 395السين والعين والدال أصل يدل على خير وسرور خلاف النحس فالسعد اليمن في الأمر والسعدان نبات من أفضل المرعى يقولون في أمثالهم مرعى ولا كالسعدان وسعود النجم عشرة مثل سعد بلع وسعد الذابح وسميت سعودا ليمنها هذا هو الأصل ثم قالو
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.
س ع د
السين والعين والدال أصل يدل على خير وسرور خلاف النحس فالسعد اليمن في الأمر والسعدان نبات من أفضل المرعى يقولون في أمثالهم مرعى ولا كالسعدان وسعود النجم عشرة مثل سعد بلع وسعد الذابح وسميت سعودا ليمنها هذا هو الأصل ثم قالو …
s-ʿ-d: a root indicating good and joy, the opposite of misfortune. Al-saʿd is good fortune in a matter, and al-saʿdān is a plant among the best of pasturage; they say in their proverbs, 'Pasturage, but not like al-saʿdān.' The suʿūd of the stars are ten, like Saʿd Bulaʿ and Saʿd al-Dhābiḥ, and they were named suʿūd for their good fortune. This is the root, then they said... AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lane ↗Quran ×2
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
- سsīntongue-tip, by the front teeth · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- دdāltongue-tip, roots of the teeth · voiced, stopSīb. · 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
س
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 ↗
ع
ومن أوسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Sībawayh, lines 26548–26549 ↗
ومن وسط الحلق مخرج العين والحاء
From the middle of the throat is the place of the ʿayn and the ḥāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 970 ↗
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 ↗
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
س
Level of existence: ما ظهر في الماء · what appears in water
Divine Name: المحيي · al-Muḥyī, the Life-Giver
Lunar mansion: النعائم · al-Naʿāʾim
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62110Spheres 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 2581ع
Level of existence: الطبيعة · Nature
Divine Name: الباطن · The Inward (al-Bāṭin)
Lunar mansion: الثريا · al-Thurayyā (the Pleiades)
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 63825Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
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 2582Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
س
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء المليح الذي من طبعه الرقة.
It is an indication of the comely thing whose nature is delicacy.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القبيح الخشن، أو إشارة إلى سواد حسا ومعنى.
It is an indication of the ugly, rough thing, or of blackness, sensible and figurative.
With kasra ـِ
وبالكسر إشارة إلى الشيء الطابع وتكون الإشارة منه.
With kasra it is an indication of the impressing/stamping thing, and the indication proceeds from it.
ع
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم لقدوم أو رحيل.
It is a name for arrival or departure.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للساكن في الذات التي تقوم به.
It is a name for that which dwells in the self and by which the self subsists.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم لخبث الذات.
It is a name for the foulness of the self.
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.
Two-letter nucleus8 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterس ع
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 13737 ↗
- سعفالسين والعين والفاء أصلان متباينان يدل أحدهما على يبس شيء وتشعثه والآخر على مواتاة الشيءL13738
- سعلالسين والعين واللام أصل يدل على صخب وعلو صوتL13745
- سعمالسين والعين والميم كلمة واحدة فالسعم السيرL13750
- سعنالسين والعين والنون كلمة واحدة يقولون ما له سعنة ولامعنة أي ما له قليل ولا كثير ويقال إن كان صحيحا إن السعن شيء كالدلوL13751
- سعوالسين والعين والحرف المعتل وهو الواو كلمتان إن صحتا فذكر عن الكسائي مضى سعو من الليل أي قطع منه وذكر ابن دريد أن السعو الشمع وفيه نظر والمسعاة في الكرL13753
- سعدالسين والعين والدال أصل يدل على خير وسرور خلاف النحس فالسعد اليمن في الأمر والسعدان نبات من أفضل المرعى يقولون في أمثالهم مرعى ولا كالسعدان وسعود النجQ 2 · L13758
- سعرالسين والعين واراء أصل واحد يدل على اشتعال الشيء واتقاده وارتفاعهQ 19 · L13769
- سعطالسين والعين والطاء أصل وهو أن يوجر الإنسان الدواء ثم يحمل عليه فمن ذلك أسعطته الدواء فاستعطه والمسعط الذي يجعل فيه السعوط والسعوط هو الدواء وأصل بنائL13784
In the sister scriptsHebrew ס/ש ע דSyriac ܣ/ܫ ܥ ܕ
| Arabic | س ع د |
| Hebrew | ס/ש ע ד |
| Syriac | ܣ/ܫ ܥ ܕ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩯/𐩦 𐩲 𐩵 |
| Phoenician | 𐤎/𐤔 𐤏 𐤃 |
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