Mashrabaمشربة

Root · 20 in the Quran · 89 in 20 texts of the library

كشفIbn Fāris's own entry for ك-ش-ف is not among the excerpts given; across al-Khalīl, … (root kshf)

English rendering

كشف

The family of the root

Patterns computed · our data

The words of ك ش ف that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.

10 words4 verbs2 participles1 other noun3 plurals

  • كَشَفَdiscover; reveal
  • كَشْفreport; revelation
  • اِنْكَشَفَ—
  • كَاشِفexaminer; inspector
  • كَاشَفَdisclose; reveal
The whole family4 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs4كَشَفَ · اِنْكَشَفَ · كَاشَفَ

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 يَفْعِلُ (a – i; the imperfect from the Quranic Arabic Corpus)

Participles2كَاشِف · مَكْشُوف

The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →

Other nouns1كَشْف

Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →

Plurals3كَاشِفَات · كَاشِفُو · كُشُوفات

Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →

  • كَاشِفَاتsound plural of كَاشِفَةQurʾān ×1
  • كَاشِفُوsound plural of كَاشِفQurʾān ×1
  • كُشُوفاتsound plural of كَشْفlibrary ×1

Reference

Why this shape?What each of the 8 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.

مَفْعَلَةك ش فمَكْشَفَة

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

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)'

    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

    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

English: AI translation
  • al-Khalīl · 170Al-kashf (الكشف): your lifting of something from what conceals and covers it, like removing a cover from a thing.

    al-Khalīl b. Aḥmad (d. c. 170/786), Kitāb al-ʿAyn. The first Arabic dictionary, arranged by permutations of the root letters.

    Al-kashf (الكشف): your lifting of something from what conceals and covers it, like removing a cover from a thing. Al-kashfa (الكشفة) is a circle at the hairline of the forelock, and it may sometimes be small hairs growing upward, regarded as an ill omen. The descriptive adjective is akshaf (أكشف), and the noun is al-kashfa (الكشفة). Al-kashūf (الكشوف) is the she-camel mounted by the stallion while she is [already] pregnant; she is said to have 'kashafat kishāfan' (كشفت كشافا).

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    الكشف: رفعك شيئا عما يواريه ويغطيه، كرفع الغطاء عن الشيء. والكشفة: دائرة في قصاص الناصية، وربما كانت شعيرات نبتت صعدا، يتشاءم بها. والنعت: أكشف، والاسم: الكشفة «1» والكشوف: الناقة التي يضربها الفحل وهي حامل، وقد كشفت كشافا «2» .

    al-Khalīl · 170 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 5, p. 297) ↗
  • al-Jawharī · 393Kashaftu (كشفت) the thing, so it became fa-inkashafa (فانكشف) and takashshafa (تكشّف) [uncovered/unveiled].

    al-Jawharī (d. c. 393/1003), al-Ṣiḥāḥ. Admits only usage he judged sound.

    Kashaftu (كشفت) the thing, so it became fa-inkashafa (فانكشف) and takashshafa (تكشّف) [uncovered/unveiled]. It is said: 'the lightning spread/filled the sky' (takashshafa al-barq) when it fills the sky. Kāshafahu bi-l-'adāwa (كاشفه بالعداوة) means he was first to show open enmity toward him. It is said: 'law takāshaftum mā tadāfantum' (لو تكاشفتم ما تدافنتم), meaning: if the faults of each of you had been revealed to the other, you would not have buried one another. Al-kashūf (الكشوف) is the she-camel mounted by the stallion while pregnant; the she-camel is said to have 'kashafat kishāfan' (كشفت كشافا). Al-Asma'i said: if the stallion covers her for two consecutive years, that is called al-kishāf (الكشاف), and the she-camel is kashūf (كشوف). Zuhayr said: "And she conceives in succession (kishāfan), then gives birth and is weaned" And akshafa al-qawm (أكشف القوم) means their camels became kashūf. Al-kashaf (الكشف), with the fatha, is a turning-back at the hairline of the forelock as though it were a circle — small hairs that grow upward — and the man [with this feature] is akshaf (أكشف), and that spot is called kashfa (كشفة). Al-kashaf in horses is a twist in the tail-shaft. Al-akshaf (الأكشف) is the man who carries no shield with him in war.

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    كشفت الشئ (1) فانكشف وتكشف. يقال: تكشف البرق، إذا ملأ السماء. وكاشفه بالعداوة، أي بادأه بها. ويقال: " لو تكاشفتم ما تدافنتم "، أي لو انكشف عيب بعضكم لبعض. والكشوف: الناقة التي يضربها الفحل وهي حامل. وقد كشفت الناقة كشافا. وقال الأصمعي: فإن حمل عليها الفحل سنتين متواليتين فذلك الكشاف، والناقة كشوف. قال زهير: وتلقح كشافا ثم تنتج فتفطم (2) * وأكشف القوم، أي كشفت إبلهم. والكشف بالتحريك: انقلاب من قصاص الناصية كأنها دائرة، وهي شعيرات تنبت صعدا، والرجل أكشف، وذلك الموضع كشفة. والكشف في الخيل: التواء في عسيب الذنب. والأكشف: الرجل الذي لا ترس معه في الحرب.

    al-Jawharī · 393 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 4, p. 1421) ↗
  • al-Rāghib · 502Kashaftu (كشفت) the garment from the face or elsewhere [means to remove it].

    al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. c. 502/1108), al-Mufradāt. Quranic vocabulary, from core sense to Quranic usage.

    Kashaftu (كشفت) the garment from the face or elsewhere [means to remove it]. It is said: 'kashafa ghammahu' (كشف غمه) [he removed his distress]. God Almighty said: 'And if Allah should touch you with adversity, there is no remover of it except Him' [wa in yamsaska Allāhu bi-ḍurrin fa-lā kāshifa lahu illā huwa] (Q 6:17); 'then He would remove that to which you call' [fa-yakshifu mā tadʿūna ilayhi] (Q 6:41); 'You were certainly in unmindfulness of this, and We have removed from you your cover' [laqad kunta fī ghaflatin min hādhā fa-kashafnā ʿanka ghiṭāʾaka] (Q 50:22); 'Is He [not best] who responds to the desperate one when he calls upon Him and removes evil' [amman yujību al-muḍṭarra idhā daʿāhu wa-yakshifu al-sūʾ] (Q 27:62). And His saying: 'the Day the shin will be uncovered' [yawma yukshafu ʿan sāqin] (Q 68:42) — it is said its origin is from 'the war stood on its shin' (qāmat al-ḥarbu ʿalā sāqin), meaning hardship appeared; and some say its origin is from the difficult birthing of a she-camel (tadhmīr al-nāqa), which is when a man draws the foal's leg out from its mother's belly, so it is said 'kushifa ʿan al-sāq' (كشف عن الساق) [the leg was uncovered].

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    كشفت الثوب عن الوجه وغيره، ويقال: كشف غمه. قال تعالى: وإن يمسسك الله بضر فلا كاشف له إلا هو [الأنعام/ 17] ، فيكشف ما تدعون إليه [الأنعام/ 41] ، لقد كنت في غفلة من هذا فكشفنا عنك غطاءك [ق/ 22] ، أمن يجيب المضطر إذا دعاه ويكشف السوء [النمل/ 62] ، وقوله: يوم يكشف عن ساق [القلم/ 42] قيل: أصله من: قامت الحرب على ساق، أي: ظهرت الشدة، وقال بعضهم: أصله من تذمير الناقة، وهو أنه إذا أخرج رجل الفصيل من بطن أمه، فيقال: كشف عن الساق.

    al-Rāghib · 502 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 1, p. 712) ↗
  • Lisān · 711Al-kashf (الكشف): your lifting of a thing from what conceals and covers it.

    Ibn Manẓūr (d. 711/1311), Lisān al-ʿArab. The great compendium of the earlier dictionaries (entry shortened).

    Al-kashf (الكشف): your lifting of a thing from what conceals and covers it. Kashafahu yakshifuhu kashfan (كشفه يكشفه كشفا), and kashshafahu (كشّفه) [intensified form], so that it became fa-inkashafa (فانكشف) and takashshafa (تكشّف). Rīṭ kashīf (ريط كشيف): uncovered (makshūf) or unveiled (munkashif). Ṣakhr al-Ghayy said: "A rumbling, massive [cloud], with a trailing fringe, which lifts for the mirage-gazer an unveiled garment (rīṭan kashīfā)." Abu Hanifa said: he means that when the lightning flashed it lit up the cloud so that you see it white, as though it had uncovered a garment (rīṭ). It is said: takashshafa al-barq (تكشف البرق) when it fills the sky. Al-makshūf (المكشوف), in the metrical foot of al-sarīʿ, is the foot which is mafʿūlun, whose original form is mafʿūlātu; the tāʾ was dropped, leaving mafʿūlā, which is then converted in scansion to mafʿūlun. Kashafa al-amra yakshifuhu kashfan (كشف الأمر يكشفه كشفا): he made the matter manifest. Kashafahu ʿan al-amr (كشفه عن الأمر): he compelled him to reveal it. Kāshafahu bi-l-ʿadāwa (كاشفه بالعداوة): he was first to show him open enmity. In the hadith: 'law takāshaftum mā tadāfantum' (لو تكاشفتم ما تدافنتم), meaning: if the fault of each of you had been exposed to the other, you would not bury one another. Ibn al-Athir said: meaning, if one of you knew another's inner secret, he would find it burdensome to accompany his funeral procession and bury him. Al-kāshifa (الكاشفة) is a verbal noun like al-ʿāfiya (العافية) and al-khātima (الخاتمة). In the noble revelation: 'laysa lahā min dūni Allāhi kāshifah' (ليس لها من دون الله كاشفة) — meaning 'no removal (kashf) [of it]'; and it is said the tāʾ was added only to match the rhyme of His words 'azifat al-āzifa' (أزفت الآزفة); and it is said the tāʾ is for intensification. Thaʿlab said: the meaning of His words 'laysa lahā min dūni Allāhi kāshifah' is that none but the Lord of the worlds can remove [avert] the Hour, so on this view the tāʾ is for intensification, as we said. Akshafa al-rajulu ikshāfan (أكشف الرجل إكشافا): when he laughed such that his lip turned back so that his gums (darādir) showed. Al-kashfa (الكشفة): a turning-back at the parting of the hair, a noun like al-nazʿa (النزعة). [One says] kashifa kashafan (كشف كشفا), and he [with this feature] is akshaf. Al-kashaf in the forehead is a receding of the forelock without actual hair-loss (nazʿ); and it is said that al-kashaf is the hair at the front of the head turning back before the crown (al-yāfūkh). Al-kashaf (الكشف) is the verbal noun of al-akshaf. Al-kashfa (الكشفة) is the [concrete] noun/name — it is a circle at the hairline of the forelock, and it may be small hairs growing upward without forming a circle, which is also called kashfa, and it is regarded as an ill omen. Al-Jawhari [says]: al-kashaf, with the fatha, is a turning-back at the hairline of the forelock as though it were a circle — small hairs growing upward — and the man [with this feature] is akshaf, and that spot is kashfa. In the hadith of Abu al-Tufayl: 'a ruddy young man, akshaf, presented himself to him.' Ibn al-Athir said: al-akshaf is one whose forelock hairline has small hairs growing bristling and standing up, scarcely lying flat, and the Arabs regard this as an ill omen. Takashshafat al-arḍ (تكشفت الأرض): patches of the ground dried up and cracked and became parched. Al-akshaf (الأكشف): one who carries no shield with him in war; and it is also said he is one who does not stand firm in war. Al-kushuf (الكشف) are those not steadfast/true in fighting; it has no known singular. In the ode of Kaʿb: 'zālū fa-mā zāla ankāsun wa-lā kushuf' ["they departed, but he did not depart — neither cowardly stragglers nor faint-hearted ones"]. Ibn al-Athir said: al-kushuf is the plural of akshaf, which is one who has no shield with him, as though he were exposed (munkashif), uncovered. Kashafa al-qawm (كشف القوم): they were routed — from Ibn al-Aʿrabi; and he cited [a verse]: 'fa-mā dhamma ḥā...' [entry continues]

    AI translation of the Arabic below

    الكشف: رفعك الشيء عما يواريه ويغطيه، كشفه يكشفه كشفا وكشفه فانكشف وتكشف. وريط كشيف: مكشوف أو منكشف؛ قال صخر الغي: أجش ربحلا، له هيدب ... يرفع للخال ريطا كشيفا قال أبو حنيفة: يعني أن البرق إذ لمع أضاء السحاب فتراه أبيض فكأنه كشف عن ريط. يقال: تكشف البرق إذا ملأ السماء. والمكشوف في عروض السريع: الجزء الذي هو مفعولن أصله مفعولات، حذفت التاء فبقي مفعولا فنقل في التقطيع إلى مفعولن. وكشف الأمر يكشفه كشفا: أظهره. وكشفه عن الأمر: أكرهه على إظهاره. وكاشفه بالعداوة أي بادأه بها. وفي الحديث: لو تكاشفتم ما تدافنتم أي لو انكشف عيب بعضكم لبعض. وقال ابن الأثير: أي لو علم يعضكم سريرة بعض لاستثقل تشييع جنازته ودفنه. والكاشفة: مصدر كالعافية والخاتمة. وفي التنزيل العزيز: ليس لها من دون الله كاشفة ؛ أي كشف، وقيل: إنما دخلت الهاء ليساجع قوله أزفت الآزفة، وقيل: الهاء للمبالغة، وقال ثعلب: معنى قوله ليس لها من دون الله كاشفة أي لا يكشف الساعة إلا رب العالمين، فالهاء على هذا للمبالغة كما قلنا. وأكشف الرجل إكشافا إذا ضحك فانقلبت شفته حتى تبدو درادره. والكشفة: انقلاب من قصاص الشعر اسم كالنزعة، كشف كشفا، وهو أكشف. والكشف في الجبهة: إدبار ناصيتها من غير نزع، وقيل: الكشف رجوع شعر القصة قبل اليافوخ. والكشف: مصدر الأكشف. والكشفة: الاسم وهي دائرة في قصاص الناصية، وربما كانت شعرات تنبت صعدا ولم تكن دائرة، فهي كشفة، وهي يتشاءم بها. الجوهري: الكشف، بالتحريك، انقلاب من قصاص الناصية كأنها دائرة، وهي شعيرات تنبت صعدا، والرجل أكشف وذلك الموضع كشفة. وفي حديث أبي الطفيل: أنه عرض له شاب أحمر أكشف ؛ قال ابن الأثير: الأكشف الذي تنبت له شعرات في قصاص ناصيته ثائرة لا تكاد تسترسل، والعرب تتشاءم به. وتكشفت الأرض: تصوحت منها أماكن ويبست. والأكشف: الذي لا ترس معه في الحرب، وقيل: هو الذي لا يثبت في الحرب. والكشف: الذين لا يصدقون القتال، لا يعرف له واحد؛ وفي قصيد كعب: زالوا فما زال أنكاس ولا كشف قال ابن الأثير: الكشف جمع أكشف. وهو الذي لا ترس معه كأنه منكشف غير مستور. وكشف القوم: انهزموا؛ عن ابن الأعرابي؛ وأنشد: فما ذم حاديهم، ولا فال رأيهم، ... ولا كشفوا، إن أفزع السرب صائح ولا كشفوا أي لم ينهزموا. والكشاف: أن تلقح الناقة في غير زمان لقاحها، وقيل: هو أن يضربها الفحل وهي حائل، وقيل: هو أن يحمل عليها سنتين متواليتين أو سنين متوالية، وقيل: هو أن يحمل عليها سنة ثم تترك اثنتين أو ثلاثا، كشفت الناقة تكشف كشافا، وهي كشوف، والجمع كشف، وأكشفت. وأكشف القوم: لقحت إبلهم كشافا. التهذيب: الليث والكشوف من الإبل التي يضربها الفحل وهي حامل، ومصدره الكشاف؛ قال أبو منصور هذا التفسير خطأ، والكشاف أن يحمل على الناقة بعد نتاجها وهي عائذ قد وضعت حديثا، وروى أبو عبيد عن الأصمعي أنه قال: إذا حمل على الناقة سنتين متواليتين فذلك الكشاف ، وهي ناقة كشوف. وأكشف القوم أي كشفت إبلهم. قال أبو منصور: وأجود نتاج الإبل أن يضربها الفحل، فإذا نتجت تركت سنة لا يضربها الفحل، فإذا فصل عنها فصيلها وذلك عند تمام السنة من يوم نتاجها أرسل الفحل في الإبل التي هي فيها فيضربها، وإذا لم تجم سنة بعد نتاجها كان أقل للبنها وأضعف لولدها وأنهك لقوتها وطرقها؛ ولقحت الحرب كشافا على المثل؛ ومنه قول زهير: فتعرككم عرك الرحى بثفالها، ... وتلقح كشافا ثم تنتج فتتئم فضرب إلقاحها كشافا بحدثان نتاجها وإتآمها مثلا لشدة الحرب وامتداد أيامها، وفي الصحاح: ثم تنتج فتفطم. وأكشف القوم إذا صارت إبلهم كشفا، الواحدة كشوف في الحمل. والكشف في الخيل: التواء في عسيب الذنب. واكتشف الكبش النعجة: نزا عليها.

    Lisān · 711 · OpenITIvowelled page on al-Maktaba al-Shāmila (print 9, p. 300) ↗
Technical definitions1 · Ibn ʿArabī’s Iṣṭilāḥ, al-Jurjānī’s Taʿrīfāt

  • الكشف

    في اللغة: رفع الحجاب، وفي الاصطلاح: هو الاطلاع على ما وراء الحجاب من المعاني الغيبية، والأمور الحقيقية وجودا وشهودا.

    al-Jurjānī, al-Taʿrīfāt, line 3680 ↗

Look this root up elsewhere:Doha Historical Dictionary ↗Quranic Arabic Corpus ↗Arabic Almanac ↗Hawramani Arabic Lexicon ↗

The same letters, turned

The same three letters in all six orders. Choose one.

ك ش ف

الكاف والشين والفاء أصل صحيح يدل على سرو الشيء عن الشيء كالثوب يسرى عن البدن ويقال كشفت الثوب وغيره أكشفه والكشف دائرة في قصاص الناصية كأن بعض ذلك الشعر ينكشف عن مغرزه ومنبته وذلك يكون في الخيل التواء يكون في عسيب الذنب …

k-sh-f: a sound root indicating the removal of one thing from another, like a garment being drawn off the body; it is said 'kashaftu al-thawb' and other things, 'akshifuhu'; and al-kashaf is a whorl in the hairline of the forehead, as if some of that hair is uncovered from its root and growth-point; and that occurs in horses as a twist that occurs in the tailbone …

Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×20

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:

Ibn Fāris, entries found (1,021 letter-sets)
  1. 1 of 6319
  2. 2 of 6218
  3. 3 of 6164
  4. 4 of 6155
  5. 5 of 6107
  6. 6 of 658
al-Khalīl, orders his headings call used (746 letter-sets)
  1. 1 of 6148
  2. 2 of 6108
  3. 3 of 6157
  4. 4 of 6179
  5. 5 of 6111
  6. 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.

Our computation from the OpenITI texts; heading detection can miss entries

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

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)

16 more

Reference

How it is madeSībawayh and Ibn Jinnī · phonetics

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

ك

ومن أسفل من موضع القاف من اللسان قليلا ومما يليه من الحنك الأعلى مخرج الكاف

From a little lower on the tongue than the qāf's place, and the upper palate next to it, is the place of the kāf. Sībawayh, lines 26551–26552 ↗

ومن أسفل من ذلك وأدنى إلى مقدم الفم مخرج الكاف

From lower than that and nearer the front of the mouth is the place of the kāf. Ibn Jinnī, line 973 ↗

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 ↗

ف

ومن باطن الشفة السفلى وأطراف الثنايا العلى مخرج الفاء

From the inside of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth is the place of the fāʾ. Sībawayh, line 26562 ↗

ومن باطن الشفة السفلى وأطراف الثنايا العلى، مخرج الفاء

From the inside of the lower lip and the edges of the upper front teeth is the place of the fāʾ. Ibn Jinnī, line 985 ↗

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

ك

Level of existence: الكرسي والقدمين · the Footstool and the two Feet

Divine Name: الشكور · al-Shakūr, the Grateful

Lunar mansion: النثرة · al-Nathra

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 62083

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 2582

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 62087

Spheres 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 2581

ف

Level of existence: الملائكة · the angels

Divine Name: القوى · the Strong (al-Qawī)

Lunar mansion: سعد الأخبية · Saʿd al-Akhbiya

Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 65823

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 2582
Meaning by vowelal-Dabbāgh · a visionary claim about a primordial “Syriac”, not historical Syriac

English throughout: AI translation of the Arabic

ك

With fatḥa ـَ

فهي إشارة إلى حقيقة العبودية الكاملة.

It is an indication of the reality of perfect servanthood.

With ḍamma ـُ

فهي العبد الأسود أو القبيح.

It is the black or ugly slave/servant.

With kasra ـِ

فهي إشارة إلى إضافة العبودية إليك، وقال مرة أخرى: فهي إشارة منك إليك بالعبودية.

It is an indication of attributing servanthood to you. On another occasion he said: it is an indication from you to yourself of servanthood.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī

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.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī

ف

With fatḥa ـَ

فهي لنفي الخبث بعد ما كان جنسه معلوما بالخبث، فهي إشارة إلى أنه طاهر وجنسه خبيث، والخبث مثل المعاصي وما أشبهها.

It is for negating foulness in something whose genus is known for foulness. It thus indicates that the thing is pure while its genus is foul; foulness being like sins and the like.

With ḍamma ـُ

فهي لتزويل الخبث.

It is for removing foulness.

With kasra ـِ

فهي إشارة إلى الذات وما احتوت عليه، وفي بعض الأحيان قد يكون معها التقليل.

It is an indication of the self and what it contains; at times it may carry a sense of diminution.

al-Dabbāgh (d. 1132/1719), al-Ibrīz, ch. 2 §15, compiled by al-Lamaṭī
Two-letter nucleus4 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterك ش

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 27947 ↗

  • كشمالكاف والشين والميم أصيل يدل على قطع شيء أو قصرهL27958
  • كشىالكاف والشين والحرف المعتل أو المهموز أما ما ليس بمهموز فكلمة واحدة وهي شحمة مستطيلة في عنق الضب إلى فخذه والجمع الكشىL27962
  • كشحالكاف والشين والحاء أصل صحيح وهو بعض خلق الحيوان فالكشح الخصر والكشح داء يصيب الإنسان في كشحهL27969
  • كشطالكاف والشين والطاء كلمة تدل على تنحية الشىء وكشفهQ 1 · L27980
In the sister scriptsHebrew כ ש פSyriac ܟ ܣ ܦ
Arabicك ش ف
Hebrewכ ש פ
Syriacܟ ܣ ܦ
Ancient South Arabian (musnad)𐩫 𐩦/𐩪 𐩰
Phoenician𐤊 𐤔 𐤐

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.

Lenses

  • Classical lexiconAl-Khalīl and al-Jawharī agree on the base definition: kashaftu al-shayʾ, 'raising a thing from what veils and covers it' (rafʿuka shayʾan ʿammā yuwārīhi wa yughaṭṭīhi);well attested

    The lexicographers in chronological order, from al-Khalīl to Lane.

    Al-Khalīl and al-Jawharī agree on the base definition: kashaftu al-shayʾ, 'raising a thing from what veils and covers it' (rafʿuka shayʾan ʿammā yuwārīhi wa yughaṭṭīhi); al-Jawharī (al-Ṣiḥāḥ) extends it to takashshafa al-barq 'the lightning filled/opened up the sky', kāshafahu bi'l-ʿadāwa 'he confronted him openly with enmity', and the proverb law takāshaftum mā tadāfantum, 'had you exposed one another's faults, you would not have buried one another' — kashf as the exposure of a hidden fault. Ibn Fāris's chapter for this root is not supplied here, though the sibling roots (kashm 'to cut/shorten', kashṭ 'to strip and uncover') keep it within a family of removal-verbs. Al-Rāghib (al-Mufradāt) applies the same base sense — kashafa al-thawb ʿan al-wajh, kashafa ghammahu — to a run of Quranic instances: fa-lā kāshifa lahu illā huwa (Q6:17), yakshifu mā tadʿūna ilayhi (Q6:41), kashafnā ʿanka ghiṭāʾaka (Q50:22), yakshifu al-sūʾ (Q27:62), and he records two explanations of yawma yukshafu ʿan sāq (Q68:42): the idiom 'the war stood on a shin', i.e. extreme hardship became manifest, or the weaning of a young camel by baring its leg. Ibn Manẓūr (Lisān al-ʿArab) repeats this material near-verbatim and adds the prosodic term al-makshūf for a foot in the sarīʿ meter shortened by dropping its tāʾ; Lane's entry is not among the excerpts given here.

    Draws on: cayn · sihah · mufradat · lisan

  • Letters & soundIn the letter-tables ascribed to al-Akbarī (198), kāf corresponds to 'the Footstool and the two Feet' and shīn to 'the sphere of the fixed stars and the Gardens';speculative

    What the theorists of sound symbolism would say of these letters. Speculative by nature.

    In the letter-tables ascribed to al-Akbarī (198), kāf corresponds to 'the Footstool and the two Feet' and shīn to 'the sphere of the fixed stars and the Gardens'; fāʾ corresponds to 'the angels'. Al-Dabbāgh's fatḥa-readings give kāf as an indication of the reality of perfect servanthood, shīn as an indication of mercy unaccompanied by punishment (one from whom vengeance has departed and on whom mercy has become manifest), and fāʾ as negating foulness in a thing whose genus is otherwise known for foulness. A sympathetic reader might hear in this triad an echo of kashf as an act that removes what conceals (fāʾ's purification-from-genus) and discloses mercy (shīn) to the servant (kāf); this remains speculative letter-symbolism, not a claim mainstream linguistics would endorse.

    Draws on: akbari198 · dabbagh_fatha

  • Root structureAmong its ك-ش- siblings, ك-ش-ط 'stripping and uncovering a thing' sits closest in sense to ك-ش-ف, the two roots differing only in a final ف/ط;plausible

    The two-letter nucleus (Ibn Fāris's own chapters) and the permutations of the letters (Ibn Jinnī).

    Among its ك-ش- siblings, ك-ش-ط 'stripping and uncovering a thing' sits closest in sense to ك-ش-ف, the two roots differing only in a final ف/ط; ك-ش-ح names a bodily part (the flank) and an ailment of it, and ك-ش-م denotes cutting or shortening, so the group as a whole clusters loosely around removal and exposure of a surface or covering. A greater-derivation reading (Ibn Jinnī) might note that ك and ش recur across ك-ش-ط and ك-ش-ف with the same broad sense of removal, but this is juxtaposition, not an established derivation. Of the anagram permutations only ك-ش-ف itself is attested, with 20 Quranic occurrences; كفش, شكف, شفك, فكش and فشك are all unattested.

    Draws on: nucleusSiblings · permutations

  • Semitic kin & loanwordsHebrew and Aramaic have a formally similar root כשף (k-š-p), but its sense is 'to practice sorcery, witchcraft' (Hebrew mekhashshef, 'sorcerer'), not 'to uncover'.plausible

    Cognates in the sister languages, and whether the word was borrowed.

    Hebrew and Aramaic have a formally similar root כשף (k-š-p), but its sense is 'to practice sorcery, witchcraft' (Hebrew mekhashshef, 'sorcerer'), not 'to uncover'. This looks like a false friend rather than a true cognate for the Arabic sense of removing a covering; no confident cognate for kashafa 'to uncover, unveil' has been identified in the other Semitic languages consulted here. There is no basis for treating Arabic ك-ش-ف as a loanword.

    Draws on: comparative

    • CAL: כשף (sorcery) (link not verified)
  • Quranic exegesisAt Q6:17 and Q6:41, fa-lā kāshifa lahu illā huwa / yakshifu mā tadʿūnahu ilayhi, the exegetes read kāshif as 'remover' of harm, with al-Zamakhsharī stressing the rhetorical exclusivity — only God, not the idols invoked, can lift affliction.well attested

    How the classical exegetes read the word in the Quran.

    At Q6:17 and Q6:41, fa-lā kāshifa lahu illā huwa / yakshifu mā tadʿūnahu ilayhi, the exegetes read kāshif as 'remover' of harm, with al-Zamakhsharī stressing the rhetorical exclusivity — only God, not the idols invoked, can lift affliction. In Pharaoh's plea (Q7:134, la-in kashafta ʿannā al-rijz), al-Ṭabarī glosses kashafta as 'if You remove'. At Q50:22, fa-kashafnā ʿanka ghiṭāʾaka fa-baṣaruka al-yawma ḥadīd, al-Rāzī and al-Zamakhsharī read this eschatologically: on the Day of Judgment the veil of worldly heedlessness is removed and inner sight becomes sharp — a verse later mined heavily by the Sufis for the technical sense of kashf as unveiling. At Q68:42, yawma yukshafu ʿan sāq, most exegetes (al-Ṭabarī, al-Zamakhsharī) read it as an idiom for extreme terror and crisis on the Day of Resurrection ('the shin being bared' as the Arabs say of dire straits), while some ḥadīth-based reports push toward a more literal reading that later theologians debated.

    Draws on: tabari · zamakhshari · razi · raghib

  • Philosophy & kalāmKashf became a standing technical term for unveiling: direct, non-discursive disclosure of truth, as opposed to burhān, demonstrative proof reached by naẓar/istidlāl.plausible

    The word as a technical term in falsafa and theology.

    Kashf became a standing technical term for unveiling: direct, non-discursive disclosure of truth, as opposed to burhān, demonstrative proof reached by naẓar/istidlāl. Al-Ghazālī, in al-Munqidh min al-Ḍalāl, contrasts the certainty available to the philosophers and theologians through argument with the higher certainty the Sufis claim through kashf, an experiential opening in which the veil between the knower and the known is lifted rather than inferred across. In kalām more broadly the term marks a mode of knowing distinct from, and in some authors superior in certainty to, syllogistic reasoning, without itself being a formal proof-procedure.

    Draws on: ghazali · kalam

  • Akbarian readingIn Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī distinguishes the kind of knowledge under discussion from intellect proceeding by reflective inquiry (ʿaql bi-ṭarīq naẓar fikrī): 'this mode of apprehension occurs only through a divine kashf, by which one knows the root of the world's forms receptive to their spirits.' Kashf here names God-given direct disclosure of the archetypal forms underlying creation, set explicitly against discursive, inferential knowing — the foundational Akbarian distinction between ʿaql/naẓar and kashf that runs through the rest of the Fuṣūṣ.well attested

    The word in Ibn ʿArabī's text and terminology.

    In Faṣṣ Ādam, Ibn ʿArabī distinguishes the kind of knowledge under discussion from intellect proceeding by reflective inquiry (ʿaql bi-ṭarīq naẓar fikrī): 'this mode of apprehension occurs only through a divine kashf, by which one knows the root of the world's forms receptive to their spirits.' Kashf here names God-given direct disclosure of the archetypal forms underlying creation, set explicitly against discursive, inferential knowing — the foundational Akbarian distinction between ʿaql/naẓar and kashf that runs through the rest of the Fuṣūṣ. No separate Iṣṭilāḥ definition of kashf is supplied among the materials given, so this reading rests on the Faṣṣ Ādam passage itself.

    Draws on: FassAdam

  • Illuminationist readingSuhrawardī's Illuminationist epistemology likewise privileges immediate, non-discursive knowing — ʿilm ḥuḍūrī, knowledge by presence, and mushāhada, witnessing — over knowledge mediated by representational forms, a project in the same conceptual neighborhood as kashf's 'removal of a veil'.uncertain

    The word in Suhrawardī's philosophy of light.

    Suhrawardī's Illuminationist epistemology likewise privileges immediate, non-discursive knowing — ʿilm ḥuḍūrī, knowledge by presence, and mushāhada, witnessing — over knowledge mediated by representational forms, a project in the same conceptual neighborhood as kashf's 'removal of a veil'. However, kashf is not Suhrawardī's own preferred technical term; he favors ḥuḍūr and mushāhada, so the connection to kashf proper is one of family resemblance in later Islamic epistemology rather than a documented usage in his corpus.

    Draws on: general

Reference

Neighbouring rootsThe roots that share letters with this one, as a map you can open out