Root · 3 in the Quran · 10 in 5 texts of the library
نقب (root nqb)
النون والقاف والباء أصل صحيح يدل على فتح في شيء ونقب الحائط ينقبه نقبا والبيطار ينقب سرة الدابة ليخرج منها ماء وتلك …
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-lugha
The family of the root
Patterns computed · our dataThe words of ن ق ب that our sources attest: the root's letters in green, the added letters in gold.
31 words6 verbs5 verbal nouns3 participles3 places and instruments1 intensive or elative8 other nouns5 plurals
- مَناقِبvirtues; exploits
- نَقِيبthing perforated, pierced, bored
- نَقْبhole, perforation, or bore, in, or through, a wall, or anything whatever
- نَقَّبَ—
- مُنَقِّبdriller; excavator
The whole family7 groups, by pattern; tap a pattern to see what it does
Verbs6نَقَبَ · نَقَّبَ · اِنْتَقَبَ
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 يَفْعُلُ (a – u; the imperfect from Lane's “aor.”)
Verbal nouns5نَقْب · نَقَب · نِقَاب
The action itself, named as a noun (maṣdar).grammar →
Participles3مَناقِب · مُنَقِّب · نَاقِب
The one who does it, and the one it is done to.grammar →
- مَناقِبvirtues; exploitsautoactive, Form IIIlibrary ×3
- مُنَقِّبdriller; excavatorautoactive, Form IVlibrary ×1Ibn Fāris
- نَاقِبactive, Form ILane
Place, time and instrument3مَنْقَب · مَنْقَبَة · مِنْقَب
Where or when it happens, and what it is done with: the m- nouns.grammar →
Intensives, qualities and the elative1نَقِيب
The quality carried far, held as a trait, or compared.grammar →
- نَقِيبthing perforated, pierced, boredLanequality (faʿīl)Qurʾān ×1library ×1LaneIbn Fāris
Other nouns8نَقِب · نُقَب · نُقْب
Nouns on other patterns; their meaning is learned word by word.grammar →
Plurals5نَقُب · نُقَب · نُقَبَاء
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.
- Attested: مَنْقَبَة, noun of place (with -a), “narrow way between two houses, along which one cannot pass” (Lane, Ibn Fāris)
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 · 395النون والقاف والباء أصل صحيح يدل على فتح في شيء ونقب الحائط ينقبه نقبا والبيطار ينقب سرة الدابة ليخرج منها ماء وتلك الحديدة منقب وكلب نقيب نقبت غلصمته ليضعف صوته يفعله اللثام لئلا يسمع صوته الصيف والناقبة قرحة تخرج بالجن
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 ق ب
النون والقاف والباء أصل صحيح يدل على فتح في شيء ونقب الحائط ينقبه نقبا والبيطار ينقب سرة الدابة ليخرج منها ماء وتلك الحديدة منقب وكلب نقيب نقبت غلصمته ليضعف صوته يفعله اللثام لئلا يسمع صوته الصيف والناقبة قرحة تخرج بالجن …
N-q-b is one sound root indicating the opening of something. Naqaba al-ḥāʾiṭ, yanqubuhu, naqban; and the veterinarian yanqubu surrat al-dābba so that water comes out of it, that iron tool being called minqab; and kalb naqīb, its larynx pierced to weaken its bark, done by raiders so that its bark will not be heard in summer; and al-nāqiba is an ulcer that erupts in the … 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
- نnūntip of the tongue · voiced, in betweenSīb. · I. Jinnī
- قqāffar back of the tongue · voiced, stopSīb. · 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
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 ↗
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 ↗
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
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 2580ق
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 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
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.
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.
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 nucleus18 roots in Ibn Fāris’s chapterن ق
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 32321 ↗
- نقلالنون والقاف واللام أصل صحيح يدل على تحويل شيء من مكان إلى مكان ثم يفرع ذلكL32323
- نقمالنون والقاف والميم أصيل يدل على إنكار شيء وعيبه ونقمت عليه أنقم أنكرت عليه فعله والنقمة من العذاب والانتقام كأنه أنكر عليه فعاقبه وقولهم للنفس نقيمة Q 17 · L32338
- نقهالنون والقاف والهاء كلمة تدل على البرء من المرض ثم يستعار ونقه من المرض نقوها أفاق فهو ناقة ويقولون نقه الحديث مثل فهم بكسر القاف فرقا بينه وبين الأولL32342
- نقيالنون والقاف والحرف المعتل أصل يدل على نظافة وخلوص منه نقيت الشيء خلصته مما يشوبه تنقية وكذلكL32348
- نقبالنون والقاف والباء أصل صحيح يدل على فتح في شيء ونقب الحائط ينقبه نقبا والبيطار ينقب سرة الدابة ليخرج منها ماء وتلك الحديدة منقب وكلب نقيب نقبت غلصمتهQ 3 · L32358
- نقثالنون والقاف والثاء كلمة صحيحة تدل على خلط شيء بشيء ونقله ونقث ما في منزلي أجمع نقله كله ونقثوا حديثهم خلطوه كما ينقث الطعام وخرج ينقث يسرع في نقل قواL32375
- نقحالنون والقاف والحاء أصل صحيح يدل على تنحيتك شيئا عن شيء ونقحت العصا شذبت عنها أبنها ومنه شعر منقح أي مفتش ملقى عنه ما لا يصلح فيه ونقحت العظم استخرجت L32380
- نقخالنون والقاف والخاء كلمة تدل على قرع شىء وماء نقاخ بارد عذب كأنه ينقخ العطش ببرده أي يقرعه والنقخ نقب الرأس عن الدماغL32384
- نقدالنون والقاف والدال أصل صحيح يدل على إبراز شيء وبروزهL32387
- نقذالنون والقاف والذال أصل صحيح يدل على استخلاص شيء وأنقذته منه خلصته وفرس نقيذ أخذ من قوم آخرين وأفراس نقائذ وكل ما أنقذته فهو نقذQ 5 · L32397
- نقرالنون والقاف والراء أصل صحيح يدل على قرع شيء حتى تهزم فيه هزمة ثم يتوسع فيه منه منقار الطائر لأنه ينقر به الشيء حتى يؤثر فيه ونقرت الرحى بالمنقار وهي Q 4 · L32400
- نقزالنون والقاف والزاء أصيل يدل على دقة وخفة وصغر منه النقز الوثب ونواقز الظبي قوائمه ونقز الناس أرذالهم والنقز الرجل الردي والنقاز داء يأخذ الغنم فيقلق L32419
- نقسالنون والقاف والسين أصيل يدل على لطخ شيء بشيء غير حسن ونقسته عبته كأنك لطخته بشيء قبيح واصله نقس المداد والجمع انقاسL32424
- نقشالنون والقاف والشين أصل صحيح يدل على استخراج شيء واستيعابه حتى لا يترك منه شيء ثم يقاس ما يقاربه منه نقش الشعر بالمنقاش وهو نتفه ومنه المناقشة الاستقصL32427
- نقصالنون والقاف والصاد كلمة واحدة هي النقص خلاف الزيادة ونقص الشيء ونقصته أنا وهو منقوص والنقيصة العيبQ 10 · L32437
- نقضالنون والقاف والضاد أصل صحيح يدل على نكث شيء وربما دل على معنى من المعاني على جنس من الصوت ونقضت الحبل والبناء والنقيض المنقوض ولذلكQ 9 · L32441
- نقطالنون والقاف والطاء أصيل يدل على نكتة لطيفة في الشيءL32452
- نقعالنون والقاف والعين أصلان صحيحان أحدهما يدل على استقرار شيء كالمائع في قراره والآخر على صوت من الأصواتQ 1 · L32455
In the sister scriptsHebrew נ ק בSyriac ܢ ܩ ܒ
| Arabic | ن ق ب |
| Hebrew | נ ק ב |
| Syriac | ܢ ܩ ܒ |
| Ancient South Arabian (musnad) | 𐩬 𐩤 𐩨 |
| Phoenician | 𐤍 𐤒 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