Root · 160 in the Quran · 20 in 10 texts of the library
نبأ (root nb)
النون والباء والهمزة قياسه الإتيان من مكان إلى مكان
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ن ب أ that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
17 words6 verbs3 verbal nouns1 participle4 other nouns3 plurals
- نبّأinform; indicate
- نَبَأinformation
- أَنبَاءplural of information
- أَنبَأَhe informed him, or told him, of it
- نَبَأَhe uttered a low voice, or sound
The whole family5 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6نَبَأَ · نبّأ · أَنبَأَ
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.”)
- نَبَأَhe uttered a low voice, or soundLaneForm Ilibrary ×4LaneIbn Fāris
- نبّأinform; indicateautoForm IIQurʾān ×46library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- أَنبَأَhe informed him, or told him, of itLaneForm IVQurʾān ×4library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
- استنبأhe sought, or searched after, information, or newsLaneForm XQurʾān ×1Lane
Verbal nouns3إِنْباء · نَبْء · نُبُوْء
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
- إِنْباءnotification; communicationautoForm IVlibrary ×2
- نَبْءForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
- نُبُوْءForm I · Lane: inf. n.Lane
Other nouns4نَبَأ · نَبْأَة · نَبِىْء
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
- نَبَأinformationLanenounQurʾān ×29library ×8LaneIbn Fāris
- نَبْأَةeminence, or protuberance, in the earth, or groundLanenounLaneIbn Fāris
- نَبِىْءprophetLanenounLane
- نُبُوْءَةprophecyLanenounLane
Plurals3أَنبَاء · نُبَأ · أَنْبِيَاء
Broken plurals rebuild the word on a new pattern; sound plurals add an ending.grammar →
- أَنبَاءplural of informationfrom the singularbroken plural of نَبَأQurʾān ×12library ×6Lane
- نُبَأprophetsfrom the singularbroken plural of نَبِىْءLaneIbn Fāris
- أَنْبِيَاءprophetsfrom the singularbroken plural of نَبِىْءLane
Reference
Why this shape?What each of the 11 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
Ibn Fāris · 395النون والباء والهمزة قياسه الإتيان من مكان إلى مكان يقال للذي ينبأ من أرض إلى أرض نابىء وسيل نابىء أتى من بلد إلى بلد ورجل نابىء مثله قال — ولكن قذاها كل أشعث نابى … أتتنا به الأقدار من حيث لا ندري … ومن هذا القياس النبأ
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.
ن ب أ
النون والباء والهمزة قياسه الإتيان من مكان إلى مكان
n-b-ʾ: its pattern is coming from one place to another. AI
Ibn Fāris ↗Lisān ↗Lane ↗Quran ×160
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
- نnūntip of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- بbāʾbetween the lips · voiced, stopSīb. · 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
ن
ومن حافة اللسان من أدناها إلى منتهى طرف اللسان ما بينها وبين ما يليها من الحنك الأعلى وما فويق الثنايا مخرج النون
From the edge of the tongue, from its nearest part to the end of its tip, between it and the upper palate next to it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Sībawayh, lines 26555–26556 ↗
ومن طرف اللسان بينه وبين ما فويق الثنايا، مخرج النون
From the tip of the tongue, between it and what is just above the front teeth, is the place of the nūn. Ibn Jinnī, line 979 ↗
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 ↗
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
ن
Level of existence: السماء الرابعة · the fourth heaven
Divine Name: النور · the Light (al-Nūr)
Lunar mansion: السماك · al-Simāk
Futūḥāt ch. 198, line 64663Spheres 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 2580ب
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 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
ن
With fatḥa ـَ
فهي الخير الساكن في الذات الشاعل فيها.
It is the good that dwells in the self, kindling [al-shāʿil, as written] within it.
With ḍamma ـُ
فهي إشارة إلى الخير الكامل أو النور الساطع.
It is an indication of perfect good or radiant light.
With kasra ـِ
فهي إشارة إلى شيء يدركه المتكلم أو هو له.
It is an indication of something that the speaker perceives or that belongs to him.
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.
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 nucleus19 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterن ب
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 30990 ↗
- نبثالنون والباء والثاء أصل يدل على إبراز شيء ونبث التراب أخرجه من البئر والنهر وذلك المستخرج نبيثة والجمع نبائث والنابث الحافر وقولهم خبيث نبيث إنما هو إL30998
- نبجالنون والباء والجيم يقولون النباج الرفيع الصوت وهي كلمة واحدةL31002
- نبحالنون والباء والحاء كلمة واحدة وهي نباح الكلب ونبيحه وربماL31004
- نبخالنون والباء والخاء أصل يدل على عظم وتعظم وأصل النبخ ما نفخ من اليد فخرج شبه قرح ممتلىء ماء ويقال للمتعظم في نفسه نابخةL31009
- نبذالنون والباء والذال أصل صحيح يدل على طرح وإلقاء ونبذت الشيء أنبذه نبذا ألقيته من يدي والنبيذ التمر يلقى في الآنية ويصب عليه الماءQ 12 · L31014
- نبرالنون والباء والراء أصل صحيح يدل على رفع وعلو ونبر الغلام صاح أول ما يترعرع ورجل نبار فصيح جهير وسمي المنبر لأنه مرتفع ويرفع الصوت عليه والنبر في الكلL31020
- نبسالنون والباء والسين كلمة واحدةL31027
- نبشالنون والباء والشين أصل وكلمة واحدة تدل على إبراز شيء مستور ونبش القبر وهو نباش ينبشه ومن قياسه أنابيش الكلأ القطاع المتفرقة تبرز على وجه الأرضL31030
- نبصالنون والباء والصاد يقولون نبص الغلام بالكلب ونبص الطائر صوتL31034
- نبضالنون والباء والضاد أصيل يدل على حركة أو تحريك ونبض العرق ينبض وتلك حركته وما به حبض ولا نبض وأنبضت عن القوس إنباضا من هذا ونبضت أيضا ويقولون فؤاد نبضL31036
- نبطالنون والباء والطاء كلمة تدل على استخراج شيء واستنبطت الماء استخرجته والماء نفسه إذا استخرج نبط ويقال إن النبط سموا به لاستنباطهم المياه ومن المحمول عQ 1 · L31041
- نبعالنون والباء والعين كلمتان إحداهما نبوع الماء والموضع الذي ينبع منه ينبوع والنوابع من البعير المواضع التي يسيل منها عرقه ومنابع الماء مخارجه من الأرض Q 2 · L31046
- نبغالنون والباء والغين كلمة تدل على بروز وظهور ونبغ الشيء ظهر والنبغ ما تطاير من الدقيق إذا طحن أو نخل ونبغ الرجل إذا لم يكن في إرث الشعر ثمL31050
- نبقالنون والباء والقاف كلمة تدل على تسوية وتهذيب والنخل إذا كان غراسه على استواء منبق وقد نبقه صاحبه وكذلك كل شيء مستو مهذبL31055
- نبكالنون والباء والكاف كلمة تدل على ارتفاع وهبوط في الأرضL31061
- نبلالنون والباء واللام أصل صحيح يدل على فضل وكبر ثم يستعار منه الحذق في العمل فيقال للفضل في الإنسان نبل والنبل عظام المدر والحجارة ويقال نبل ونبل وفي الL31064
- نبهالنون والباء والهاء أصل صحيح يدل على ارتفاع وسمو ومنه النبه والانتباه وهو اليقظة والارتفاع من النوم ونبهته وأنبهته ومنه رجل نبيه أي شريف وقولهم أن النL31081
- نبوالنون والباء والحرف المعتل أصل صحيح يدل على ارتفاع في الشىء عن غيره أو تنح عنه نبا بصره عن الشيء ينبو ونبا السيف عن الضريبة تجافى ولم يمض فيها ونبا بهL31089
- نبأالنون والباء والهمزة قياسه الإتيان من مكان إلى مكانQ 160 · L31099
In the sister scriptsHebrew נ ב אSyriac ܢ ܒ ܐ
| Arabic | ن ب أ |
| Hebrew | נ ב א |
| Syriac | ܢ ܒ ܐ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩬 𐩨 𐩱 |
| Phoenician | 𐤍 𐤁 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.
Reference