Root · 373 in the Quran · 30 in 12 texts of the library
عذب (root dhb)
العين والذال والباء أصل صحيح لكن كلماته لا تكاد تنقاس ولا يمكن جمعها إلى شيء واحد فهو كالذي ذكرناه آنفا في باب العين …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ع ذ ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
31 words6 verbs5 verbal nouns3 participles1 place or instrument2 intensives and elatives10 other nouns3 plurals1 relative or abstract
- عَذَابpunishment, castigation, or chastisement, or such as serves to give warning …
- عَذَّبَhe punished, castigated, or chastised, him
- عَذْبsweet water
- مُعَذِّب—
- مُعَذَّبِين—
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6عَذُبَ · عَذَّبَ · تَعَذَّبَ
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: فَعُلَ يَفْعُلُ (u – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- عَذُبَForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- عَذَّبَhe punished, castigated, or chastised, himLaneForm IIQurʾān ×41LaneIbn Fāris
- تَعَذَّبَForm Vlibrary ×1
- أَعْذَبَthe people, or party, became in the condition of having sweet waterLaneForm IVLaneIbn Fāris
Verbal nouns5عَذْب · عُذُوبَة · تَعْذِيب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- عَذْبsweet waterLaneForm IV · Lane: inf. n.Qurʾān ×2library ×5LaneIbn Fāris
- عُذُوبَةsweetness; pleasantnessautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×2LaneIbn Fāris
- تَعْذِيبtorture; punishmentautoForm II · Lane: inf. n.library ×1Lane
- عَذَبmotes, or particles of rubbish or the like, floating upon waterLaneForm I · Lane: inf. n.LaneIbn Fāris
- إِعْذَابForm IV · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles3مُعَذِّب · عَاذِب · مُعْذِب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Place, time and instrument1مَعْذَبَة
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
- مَعْذَبَةnoun of place (with -a)Lane
Intensives, qualities and the elative2أَعْذَب · عَذُوب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- أَعْذَبsweeter; sweetestautoelative or colour adjective (afʿal)library ×1Ibn Fāris
- عَذُوبintensive (faʿūl)LaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns10عَذَاب · عَذَبَة · عَذِب
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- عَذَابpunishment, castigation, or chastisement, or such as serves to give warning …LanenounQurʾān ×322library ×3LaneIbn Fāris
- عَذَبَةnounLaneIbn Fāris
- عَذِبnounLaneIbn Fāris
- عَذِبَةnounLaneIbn Fāris
Plurals3مُعَذَّبِين · عِذَاب · مُعَذِّبِين
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 17 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: مَعْذَبَة, noun of place (with -a) (Lane)
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 · 395العين والذال والباء أصل صحيح لكن كلماته لا تكاد تنقاس ولا يمكن جمعها إلى شيء واحد فهو كالذي ذكرناه آنفا في باب العين والذال والراء وهذا يدل على أن اللغة كلها ليست قياسا لكن جلها ومعظمها فمن الباب عذب الماء يعذب عذوبة فهو
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.
ع ذ ب
العين والذال والباء أصل صحيح لكن كلماته لا تكاد تنقاس ولا يمكن جمعها إلى شيء واحد فهو كالذي ذكرناه آنفا في باب العين والذال والراء وهذا يدل على أن اللغة كلها ليست قياسا لكن جلها ومعظمها فمن الباب عذب الماء يعذب عذوبة فهو …
ʿ-dh-b is a sound root, but its words can hardly be measured and cannot be gathered into one thing, so it is like what we mentioned just before in the entry for ʿ-dh-r, and this indicates that language as a whole is not based on qiyās, but rather most and the greater part of it is. From this entry: ʿadhuba al-māʾu yaʿdhubu ʿudhūba, so it… AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×373
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
- عʿaynmiddle of the throat · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- ذdhāltongue-tip, edges of the teeth · voiced, continuantSīb. · 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
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 ↗
ذ
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا مخرج الظاء والذال، والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26561 ↗
ومما بين طرف اللسان وأطراف الثنايا، مخرج الظاء والذال والثاء
From between the tip of the tongue and the edges of the front teeth is the place of the ẓāʾ, the dhāl and the thāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 984 ↗
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
ع
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 ↗
ذ
Level of existence: الحيوان · animals
Divine Name: المذل · the Abaser (al-Mudhill)
Lunar mansion: سعد السعود · Saʿd al-Suʿūd
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 65776Spheres 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
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.
ذ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى ما في تعظيم ذلك الشيء الذي ملكته الذات.
It is an indication of what lies in the magnifying of that thing which the self has come to possess.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم للشيء الخشن في ذاته أو العظيم أو القبيح.
It is a name for the thing that is rough in itself, or great, or ugly.
With kasra ـِ
فهي اسم للشيء القبيح الذي لا يعقبه في نفسه غضب.
It is a name for the ugly thing that is not followed, in itself, by anger.
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 nucleus2 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterع ذ
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 22009 ↗
- عذرالعين والذال والراء بناء صحيح له فروع كثيرة ما جعل الله تعالى فيه وجه قياس بتة بل كل كلمة منها على نحوها وجهتها مفردة فالعذر معروف وهو روم الإنسان إصلQ 12 · L22010
- عذقالعين والذال والقاف أصل واحد يدل على امتداد في شيء وتعلق شيء بشيءL22056
In the sister scriptsHebrew ע ז בSyriac ܥ ܕ ܒ
| Arabic | ع ذ ب |
| Hebrew | ע ז ב |
| Syriac | ܥ ܕ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩲 𐩹 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤏 𐤆 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