Root · 88 in the Quran · 82 in 16 texts of the library
قرأ (root qr)
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ق ر أ that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
30 words7 verbs6 verbal nouns3 participles2 intensives and elatives9 other nouns3 plurals
- قَرَأَhe collected together the thing
- قِراءَةreading
- أَقْرَأmake read
- قَارِئreader
- قُرُوء—
The whole family6 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs7قَرَأَ · أَقْرَأ · قرّأتَ
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: فَعَلَ يَفْعَلُ (a – a; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
- قَرَأَhe collected together the thingLaneForm IQurʾān ×16library ×17Lane
- أَقْرَأmake readautoForm IVQurʾān ×1library ×2Lane
- قرّأتَshe kept at her abode a girl, or young woman, until she should menstruate, in …LaneForm IILane
- قارأhe read, or studied, with him, each of them teaching the otherLaneForm IIILane
Verbal nouns6قِراءَة · إِقْرَاء · قَرْء
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- قِراءَةreadingautoForm I · Lane: inf. n.library ×6Lane
- إِقْرَاءForm IV · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- قَرْءthe wind blew at its timeLaneForm IV · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- قُرْآنForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Participles3قَارِئ · مُتَقَرِئ · مُقْرِئ
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- قَارِئreaderautoactive, Form Ilibrary ×2Lane
- مُتَقَرِئpassive, Form VLane
- مُقْرِئmenstruatingLaneactive, Form IVLane
Intensives, qualities and the elative2قَرَّاء · قُرْآن
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
Other nouns9قُرُوء · أَقْرَؤُكُمْ · قَرِىْء
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals3قَرَأَة · قَوَارِئ · قُرَّاء
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
This root has a weak or doubled letter, so real words change shape (qāla → qāʾil, not qāwil); the machine pours the letters in as they are, and matches attested words by their regular pattern.
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
No dictionary entry found for this root.
The same letters, turned
The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.
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
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · I. Jinnī
- رrāʾtip of the tongue, near the nūn · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- أhamzadeep in the throat · 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
ق
ومن أقصى اللسان وما فوقه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج القاف
From the furthest part of the tongue and the upper palate above it is the place of the qāf. Sībawayh, line 26550 ↗
ومما فوق ذلك من أقصى اللسان، مخرج القاف
From above that, at the furthest part of the tongue, is the place of the qāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 972 ↗
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 ↗
أ
فأقصاها مخرجا: الهمزة والهاء والألف
The furthest of them [the three in the throat] in place: the hamza, the hāʾ and the alif. Sībawayh, line 26548 ↗
فأولها من أسفله وأقصاه، مخرج الهمزة والألف والهاء، هكذا يقول سيبويه
The first of them [in the throat], from its lowest and furthest part, is the place of the hamza, the alif and the hāʾ: so Sībawayh says. Ibn Jinnī, line 965 ↗
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
ق
Spheres 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 2582ر
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 2582أ
Nature (ch. 2)
وإلا الهاء والهمزة فإنهما باردتان رطبتان
And except hāʾ and hamza, for these two are cold and moist.
Ibn ʿArabī, al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya, line 2583Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac
English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic AI
ق
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى حيازة الخيرات أو إلى جميع الأنوار.
It is an indication of the acquisition of goods, or of all lights.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى النشأة الأصلية أو العلم القديم وما أشبه ذلك.
It is an indication of the original creation, or eternal knowledge, and the like.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الذل.
It is an indication of abasement.
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.
أ
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي إشارة إلى جميع الأشياء قلت أو كثرت، وتكون الإشارة في بعض الأحيان من المتكلم إلى ذاته ونفسه، وهذه الإشارة سالمة من القبض.
It is an indication of all things, whether few or many. At times the indication is from the speaker to his own essence and self, and this indication is free of contraction (qabḍ).
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القريب القليل.
It is an indication of the near, small thing.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى الشيء القريب المناسب.
It is an indication of the near, fitting (congruent) thing.
Two-letter nucleus16 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterق 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 26255 ↗
- قرسالقاف والراء والسين أصل صحيح يدل على بردL26257
- قرشالقاف والراء والشين أصل صحيح يدل على الجمع والتجمع فالقرش الجمعL26262
- قرصالقاف والراء والصاد اصل صحيح يدل على قبض شيء بأطراف الأصابع مع نبر يكونL26269
- قرضالقاف والراء والضاد اصل صحيح وهو يدل على القطعQ 13 · L26278
- قرطالقاف والراء والطاء ثلاث كلمات عن غير قياسL26287
- قرعالقاف والراء والعين معظم الباب ضرب الشيءQ 5 · L26292
- قرفالقاف والراء والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على مخالطة الشيء والالتباس به وادراعه واصل ذلك القرف وهو كل قشر ومنه قرف الخبز وسمى قرفا وقرفا لأنه لباس ما عليه ومن Q 5 · L26312
- قرقالقاف والراء والقاف كلمة واحدة يقولون القرق القاع الأملسL26330
- قرمالقاف والراء والميم أصل صحيح يدل على حز أو قطع في شيءL26333
- قرنالقاف والراء والنون أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على جمع شيء إلى شيء والآخر شيء ينتأ بقوة وشدةQ 36 · L26345
- قرةالقاف والراء والهاء كلمة إن صحت يقولون القره في الجلد كالقلح في الأسنان وهو الوسخL26372
- قرىالقاف والراء والحرف المعتل أصل صحيح يدل على جمع واجتماعQ 57 · L26375
- قربالقاف والراء والباء أصل صحيح يدل على خلاف البعدQ 96 · L26405
- قرتالقاف والراء والتاء أصيل يدل على قبح في سحنة يقولون قرت وجه الرجل تغير من حزن وأصل ذلك من قرت الدم إذا يبس بين الجلد واللحم وهو دم قارت وقرت الجلد إذاL26431
- قرحالقاف والراء والحاء ثلاثة أصول صحيحة أحدها يدل على ألم بجراح أو ما أشبهها والآخر يدل على شيء من شوب والآخر على استنباط شيءQ 3 · L26435
- قردالقاف والراء والدال أصل صحيح يدل على تجمع في شيء مع تقطعQ 3 · L26456
In the sister scriptsHebrew ק ר אSyriac ܩ ܪ ܐ
| Arabic | ق ر أ |
| Hebrew | ק ר א |
| Syriac | ܩ ܪ ܐ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩤 𐩧 𐩱 |
| Phoenician | 𐤒 𐤓 𐤀 |
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.
Modern readings
AIRanda Hamwi DuwajiReads the first revealed command, iqraʾ (Q 96:1), by opening the root ق ر أ into six practices: gathering, carrying, deliberating, witnessing, being timely, and serving and sharing.Arabic ed. Dār al-Fikr, Damascus, 2022; English ed. ISBN 9781590080962
Revival of the IQRA! Principle (إحياء فاتحة اقرأ)
Reads the first revealed command, iqraʾ (Q 96:1), by opening the root ق ر أ into six practices: gathering, carrying, deliberating, witnessing, being timely, and serving and sharing. She sets these beside English translations and the classical lexicons, where jamʿ (gathering together) is a core sense of the root, and turns them into a practical, repeated way of reading.
Summary of the book's public description; the book itself has not been read here. Summary in our words.
Reference