Root · 39 in the Quran · 48 in 14 texts of the library
شرب (root shrb)
الشين والراء والباء أصل واحد منقاس مطرد وهو الشرب المعروف ثم يحمل عليه ما يقاربه مجازا أو تشبيها تقول شربت الماء أشربه …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ش ر ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
45 words6 verbs8 verbal nouns4 participles5 places and instruments4 intensives and elatives12 other nouns5 plurals1 relative or abstract
- شَرِبَhe drank the water at once, or at a single draught
- شَرَابbeverage, or drink, of any of the liquids, or of anything that is not …
- شُرْبthe act of drinking
- مَشْرَبcursed is he who takes entirely to himself, debarring others from it, a place …
- شَارِبِين—
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6شَرِبَ · أَشْرَبَ · شَرَّبَ
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.”)
- شَرِبَhe drank the water at once, or at a single draughtLaneForm IQurʾān ×15library ×14LaneIbn Fāris
- أَشْرَبَmake drink; give to drinkauto · Lane: see Form IIForm IVQurʾān ×1library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- شَرَّبَForm IILaneIbn Fāris
- شَارَبَhe drank with himLaneForm IIILaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns8شُرْب · إِشْرَاب · اِشْرَأَبّ
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles4شَارِب · مُشَرَّب · مُشْرَب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- شَارِبdrinking, or a drinkerLaneactive, Form Ilibrary ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- مُشَرَّبman whose complexion is much tinged over or much intermixed with rednessLanepassive, Form IILaneIbn Fāris
- مُشْرَبman whose complexion is tinged over or intermixed with rednessLanepassive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
- مُشْرِبman whose camels have drunkLaneactive, Form IVLaneIbn Fāris
Place, time and instrument5مَشْرَب · مَشْرَبَة · مَشْرُبَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مَشْرَبcursed is he who takes entirely to himself, debarring others from it, a place …Lanenoun of place or timeQurʾān ×3library ×4LaneIbn Fāris
- مَشْرَبَةnoun of place (with -a)LaneIbn Fāris
- مَشْرُبَةnoun of place (with -a)LaneIbn Fāris
- مِشْرَبnoun of instrumentLaneIbn Fāris
- مِشْرَبَةnoun of instrumentLaneIbn Fāris
Intensives, qualities and the elative4شَرُوب · شَرِيب · شِرِّيب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns12شَرَاب · شِرْب · شَرَب
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- شَرَابbeverage, or drink, of any of the liquids, or of anything that is not …LanenounQurʾān ×11library ×2Lane
- شِرْبnounQurʾān ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- شَرَبnounLaneIbn Fāris
- شَرَبَةthe act, or habit, of much drinkingLanenounLaneIbn Fāris
Plurals5شَارِبِين · مَشَارِب · شَرَب
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 21 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.
- Attested: مَشْرَبَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane, Ibn Fāris)
- Attested: مَشْرُبَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane, Ibn Fāris)
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 · 395الشين والراء والباء أصل واحد منقاس مطرد وهو الشرب المعروف ثم يحمل عليه ما يقاربه مجازا أو تشبيها تقول شربت الماء أشربه شربا وهو المصدر والشرب الاسم والشرب القوم الذين يشربون والشرب الحظ من الماء قال الشاعر في الشرب — فقل
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.
ش ر ب
الشين والراء والباء أصل واحد منقاس مطرد وهو الشرب المعروف ثم يحمل عليه ما يقاربه مجازا أو تشبيها تقول شربت الماء أشربه شربا وهو المصدر والشرب الاسم والشرب القوم الذين يشربون والشرب الحظ من الماء
sh-r-b is one analogical and consistent root: it is the well-known shurb (drinking). Then whatever resembles it is applied to it figuratively or by analogy. You say sharibtu al-māʾa ashrabuhu shurban, and that is the verbal noun; al-shirb is the noun; al-shirb are the people who are drinking; and al-shirb is one's share of water. 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
- شshīnmiddle of the tongue · voiceless, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · 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
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 ↗
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 ↗
ب
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 ↗
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
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 2581ر
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 2582ب
Level of existence: الجن · the jinn
Divine Name: اللطيف · al-Laṭīf, the Subtle
Lunar mansion: الفرع المقدم · al-Farʿ al-Muqaddam
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62118Spheres 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
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.
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.
ب
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء الذي هو في غاية العز أو في غاية الذل.
It is an indication of the thing that is at the utmost of might or at the utmost of abasement.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة معها قبض.
It is an indication accompanied by contraction (qabḍ).
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى ما دخل أو هو داخل على الذات.
It is an indication of what has entered, or is entering, upon the self.
Two-letter nucleus16 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterش ر
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 16067 ↗
- شرزالشين والراء والزاء أصل يدل على خلاف الخير في جميع فروعه من هلاك ومنازعة وغير ذلك ومن ذلك قول العرب للعدو أشرزه الله أي أهلكه ورماه بشرزة أي مهلكة ويقL16068
- شرسالشين والراء والسين أصل قريب من الذي قبلهL16072
- شرصالشين والراء والصاد ما أحسب فيه شيئا صحيحا لأني لا أرى قياسه مطردا على أنهم يقولون إن الشرصتين ناحيتا الناصية مما رق فيه الشعر ويقال لكل ضخم رخو شرواصL16075
- شرطالشين والراء والطاء أصل يدل على علم وعلامة وما قارب ذلك من علمQ 1 · L16078
- شرعالشين والراء والعين أصل واحد وهو شيء يفتح في امتداد يكون فيهQ 5 · L16103
- شرفالشين والراء والفاء أصل يدل على علو وارتفاع فالشرف العلو والشريف الرجل العالي ورجل شريف من قوم أشرافL16119
- شرقالشين والراء والقاف أصل واحد يدل على إضاءة وفتحQ 17 · L16132
- شركالشين والراء والكاف أصلان أحدهما يدل على مقارنة وخلاف انفراد والآخر يدل على امتداد واستقامةQ 168 · L16142
- شرمالشين والراء والميم أصل واحد لا يخلف وهو يدل على خرق في الشيء ومزقL16149
- شرىالشين والراء والحرف المعتل أصول ثلاثة أحدها يدل على تعارض من الاثنين في أمرين أخذا وإعطاء مماثلة والآخر نبت والثالث هيج في الشيء وعلوQ 25 · L16158
- شربالشين والراء والباء أصل واحد منقاس مطرد وهو الشرب المعروف ثم يحمل عليه ما يقاربه مجازا أو تشبيها تقول شربت الماء أشربه شربا وهو المصدر والشرب الاسم واQ 39 · L16175
- شرثالشين والراء والثاء أصل واحد وهو الشرث وهو غلظ الأصابع والكفينL16194
- شرجالشين والراء والجيم أصل منقاس يدل على اختلاط ومداخلةL16195
- شرحالشين والراء والحاء أصيل يدل على الفتح والبيانQ 5 · L16203
- شرخالشين والراء والخاء أصلان أحدهما ريعان الشيء وذلك يكون في النتاج في غالب الأمر والآخر يدل على تساو في شيئين متقابلينL16205
- شردالشين والراء والدال أصل واحد وهو يدل على تنفير وإبعاد وعلى نفار وبعد في انتشار وقدQ 1 · L16211
In the sister scriptsHebrew ש ר בSyriac ܣ ܪ ܒ
| Arabic | ش ر ب |
| Hebrew | ש ר ב |
| Syriac | ܣ ܪ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩦/𐩪 𐩧 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤔 𐤓 𐤁 |
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