Root · 0 in the Quran · 37 in 12 texts of the library
غرض (root ghrd)
الغين والراء والضاد من الأبواب التي لم توضع على قياس واحد وكلمة متباينة الأصول وسترى بعد ما بينهما فالغرض والغرضة …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of غ ر ض that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
22 words7 verbs4 verbal nouns2 participles1 place or instrument1 intensive or elative4 other nouns2 plurals1 relative or abstract
- غَرَضbutt, a mark, or an object of aim, at which one shoots, or throws
- أَغْرَاض—
- غَرَضِيّtendency; purposeful
- غَرِضَhe was vexed, or disquieted by grief, and by distress of mind
- غَرَّضَhe ate fresh flesh-meat
The whole family8 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7غَرِضَ · غَرَّضَ · غَارَضَ
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.”)
- غَرِضَhe was vexed, or disquieted by grief, and by distress of mindLaneForm ILaneIbn Fāris
- غَرَّضَhe ate fresh flesh-meatLaneForm IILaneIbn Fāris
- غَارَضَhe brought his camels to the watering-place early in the morningLaneForm IIILane
- أَغْرَضَhe made him to be vexed, or disquieted by grief, and by distress of mindLaneForm IVLane
Verbal nouns4غَرَض · غَرْض · غِرَض
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles2مَغْرُوض · مُغَرَّض
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
Place, time and instrument1مَغْرِض
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative1غَرِيض
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns4إِغْرِيض · غَارِضَا · غَرِض
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals2أَغْرَاض · مَغَارِض
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- أَغْرَاضbroken plural of غَرَضlibrary ×4Lane
- مَغَارِضbroken plural of مَغْرِضLaneIbn Fāris
Relative and abstract1غَرَضِيّ
-iyy relates a thing to its source; -iyya makes an abstract noun.grammar →
- غَرَضِيّtendency; purposefulautorelative adjective (-iyy)library ×1
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 · 395الغين والراء والضاد من الأبواب التي لم توضع على قياس واحد وكلمة متباينة الأصول وسترى بعد ما بينهما فالغرض والغرضة البطان وهو حزام الرحل والمغرض من البعير كالمحزم من الدابة والإغريض البرد ويقال بل هو الطلع ولحم غريض طري و
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.
غ ر ض
الغين والراء والضاد من الأبواب التي لم توضع على قياس واحد وكلمة متباينة الأصول وسترى بعد ما بينهما فالغرض والغرضة البطان وهو حزام الرحل والمغرض من البعير كالمحزم من الدابة والإغريض البرد ويقال بل هو الطلع ولحم غريض طري و …
gh-r-ḍ: one of the chapters not laid out upon a single analogy, its words being of divergent roots, and you will see afterward what distinguishes them. "Al-gharḍ" and "al-ghurḍah" is "al-biṭān," the strap of a saddle; "al-mughriḍ" of a camel is like "al-miḥzam" of a riding animal; "al-ighrīḍ" is hail, and it is also said to be the palm-spadix; "laḥm gharīḍ" is fresh meat, and… 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
- غghayntop of the throat · voiced, continuantSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · 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
غ
وأدناها مخرجا من الفم: الغين والخاء
The nearest of them to the mouth in place: the ghayn and the khāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26549 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك مع أول الفم، مخرج الغين والخاء
From above that, at the start of the mouth, is the place of the ghayn and the khāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 971 ↗
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 ↗
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
غ
Level of existence: الجسم الكل · the Universal Body
Divine Name: الظاهر · al-Ẓāhir, the Outward
Lunar mansion: الميسان وهي الهقعة · al-Maysān, which is al-Haqʿa
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62077Spheres of its simples (ch. 2): 9 line 2572 ↗
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 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
غ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي اسم للنظر الذي يبلغ به حقيقة الشيء.
It is a name for the gaze by which one reaches the reality of a thing.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي اسم من أسمائه تعالى ويدل على الحنانة فيه.
It is one of the names of God (Exalted is He), and it denotes the tenderness in Him.
With kasra ـِ
فهي سؤال مما يجهله ليجيبه بما يعلمه.
It is a question, from one who does not know, so that someone may answer him with what he knows.
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.
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 nucleus8 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterغ 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 24034 ↗
- غرسالغين والراء والسين أصل صحيح قريب من الذي قبلهL24040
- غرفالغين والراء والفاء أصل صحيح إلا أن كلمه لا تنقاس بل تتباين فالغرف مصدر غرفت الماء وغيره أغرفه غرفا والغرفة اسم ما يغرف والغريف الأجمة والجمع غرفQ 7 · L24054
- غرقالغين والراء والقاف أصل واحد صحيح يدل على انتهاء في شيء يبلغ أقصاهQ 23 · L24058
- غرمالغين والراء والميم أصل صحيح يدل على ملازمة وملازةQ 6 · L24066
- غرنالغين والراء والنون كلمة واحدة يقولون إن الغرين ما يبقى في الحوض من مائه وطينهL24071
- غروالغين والراء والحرف المعتل أصل صحيح وهو يدل على الإعجاب والعجب لحسن الشيءQ 2 · L24072
- غرثالغين والراء والثاء أصل صحيح يدل على الجوع والغرث الجوع ورجل غرثان ويستعيرون هذا فيقولون جارية غرثى الوشاح لأنها دقيقة الخصر لا يملأ وشاحها وكأن وشاحهL24102
- غردالغين والراء والدال كلمتان إحداهما صوت والأخرى نبتL24104
In the sister scriptsHebrew ע ר צSyriac ܥ ܪ ܥ
| Arabic | غ ر ض |
| Hebrew | ע ר צ |
| Syriac | ܥ ܪ ܥ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩶 𐩧 𐩳 |
| Phoenician | 𐤏 𐤓 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