Quranic root
شعر
sh · ʿ · r
The root has two established semantic orientations: hair and things closely adhering or visibly marked, and knowledge, perceptive awareness, and identifying signs.
From the awareness-and-sign branch come knowing, the poet as one marked by fine perception, religious signs, and the recognized place of pilgrimage. The hair branch extends to bodily hair, hair-like vegetation, and things characterized by covering or close attachment.
- Maqāyīs · row 2649
- Mufradāt · row 770
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 10
- Quran senses
- 40
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
شَعَرَ
shaʿara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 25 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To know, perceive, or be aware of something.
The Quranic use covers awareness or realization, including perception through the senses; it is commonly negated to express lack of awareness.
- Lane · entry 38655
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
أَشْعَرَ
ʾashʿara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To make someone know; to inform or cause someone to perceive.
The Quranic form is causative and may occur with a person as the one brought to awareness.
- Lane · entry 38658
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:109word 16
“will make you perceive”
Quran 18:19word 36
“And let not be aware”
شَاعِرٌ
shāʿirun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 5 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A poet; one who composes or practices poetry.
The Quranic noun denotes a person characterized by poetry or its composition.
- Lane · entry 38685
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
A liar or fabricator.
This is an attested Quran-focused interpretation of the accusations directed at the Prophet, in which “poet” is understood as an accusation of false invention rather than a claim about formal meter and rhyme.
- Lane · entry 38685
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:5word 9
“(is) a poet”
شَعِيرَةٌ
shaʿīrahun
- Part of speech
- Noun · plural شَعَائِرُ
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A religious sign, rite, observance, or marked place, especially one of the rites and landmarks of pilgrimage.
The plural refers to visible or appointed signs of worship, including pilgrimage rites and their recognized places.
- Lane · entry 38678
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
A sacrificial animal brought for offering.
In the pilgrimage context, the term can refer to an animal designated for sacrifice and marked as such.
- Lane · entry 38678
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:36word 5
“(the) Symbols”
شَعْرٌ / شِعْرٌ
shaʿrun / shiʿrun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Hair: the bodily growth found on people and animals.
The Quranic occurrence is the plural أَشْعَار, referring to hair used among the means of shelter and furnishings.
- Lane · entry 38662
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:80word 21
“and their hair”
Poetry or verse: language intentionally shaped by meter and rhyme.
The Quranic use denotes poetry as a recognized poetic form, distinct from ordinary speech that happens to resemble meter or rhyme.
- Lane · entry 38664
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:69word 3
“[the] poetry”
الشِّعْرَىٰ
ālshshiʿrāā
- Part of speech
- Proper noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Sirius, the bright star.
The Quranic proper name refers to the star known in Arabic as al-Shiʿrā.
- Lane · entry 38669
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
Quran 53:49word 4
“(of) Sirius”
مَشْعَرٌ
mashʿarun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
A recognized landmark or a place where religious rites are performed; in the Quran, the sacred pilgrimage landmark.
The Quranic expression الْمَشْعَرِ الْحَرَامِ denotes a recognized sacred place associated with pilgrimage worship.
- Lane · entry 38689
- Mufradāt · row 770
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:198word 16
“the Monument”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:9يَشْعُرُونَthey realize (it)
- 2:12يَشْعُرُونَthey realize (it)
- 2:154تَشْعُرُونَperceive
- 2:158شَعَآئِرِ(the) symbols
- 2:198ٱلْمَشْعَرِthe Monument
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 79 Classical meanings
شَعَرَ
To speak or compose poetry; to versify.
A Form I verbal use distinct from knowing or perceiving.
- Lane · entry 38655
شَعِرَ
To become abundant or long-haired.
Used of a person or a hairy animal.
- Lane · entry 38655
شَعِرَ
To possess slaves.
A reported tropical usage.
- Lane · entry 38655
شَاعَرَ
To compete with someone in poetry and surpass them.
The construction expresses reciprocal poetic rivalry.
- Lane · entry 38657
شَاعَرَ
To sleep with another person in one innermost garment.
A conventional expression based on sharing a شِعَار, the garment next to the body.
- Lane · entry 38657
شَاعَرَ
To handle, seize, or pluck.
A reported explanation without a named supporting authority.
- Lane · entry 38657
أَشْعَرَ
To make someone notorious for an evil deed or quality.
A causative extension of making something known, with notoriety as the result.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To mark or designate something so that its status is recognizable, especially to mark an animal intended for sacrifice.
The sacrificial animal was marked by an incision in the hump so that blood appeared and its destination was known.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To wound someone so as to make blood appear.
A reported tropical and traditional usage.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To pierce someone deeply with a spear, or to kill a king.
The expression emphasizes penetration into the body; the specialized passive usage is said particularly of a slain king.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To make something a distinguishing sign.
Applied to a religious service or appointment that functions as a sign by which a religion is recognized.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To call out or appoint a war slogan by which people recognize one another.
Used of a group adopting a shared call or identifying slogan.
- Lane · entry 38658
مَا أَشْعَرَهُ
How excellent a poet he is!
An idiomatic exclamation of poetic excellence.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
For a fetus to grow hair; for a camel to cast a fetus covered with hair.
The first use is intransitive; the second describes the result of a camel's miscarriage or birth.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To line or cover an object with hair.
Used of boots, garments, saddle coverings, caps, and similar articles.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To clothe someone in an innermost garment or put a garment next to the body.
The garment is the شِعَار, the layer closest to the body.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To make something cleave or adhere; figuratively, to involve someone in evil or anxiety.
The figurative uses describe evil or anxiety as clinging closely to a person or heart.
- Lane · entry 38658
أَشْعَرَ
To fit a barley-shaped fastening to a knife.
A technical use referring to the fastening inserted into the tang and handle.
- Lane · entry 38658
تَشَاعَرَ
To affect or pretend to be a poet without being one.
A reciprocal Form VI use expressing assumed poetic identity.
- Lane · entry 38660
اِسْتَشْعَرَتِ البَقَرَةُ
For a cow to call out to her young, seeking to know its condition.
A specialized animal behavior expression.
- Lane · entry 38661
اِسْتَشْعَرَ
To call to one another using a shared identifying slogan, especially in war.
The Form X construction describes mutual use of a شِعَار.
- Lane · entry 38661
اِسْتَشْعَرَ
To put on an innermost garment; figuratively, to take fear into the heart.
The figurative construction presents fear as something worn close to the heart or inwardly conceived.
- Lane · entry 38661
شَعْرٌ
Plants or trees, by comparison with hair.
A tropical extension for vegetation resembling or appearing like hair.
- Lane · entry 38662
شَعْرَةٌ
A daughter.
A metonymic tropical use of the singular hair noun.
- Lane · entry 38662
شَعْرٌ
Saffron before it is pulverized.
A specialized tropical use.
- Lane · entry 38662
شِعْرٌ
Knowledge, cognizance, or precise perception of particulars.
Used especially in the elliptical expression لَيْتَ شِعْرِي, “would that I knew.”
- Lane · entry 38664
شِعْرٌ
Falsehood or lying.
A figurative association with the alleged prevalence of lies in poetry.
- Lane · entry 38664
شَعِرَةٌ
A sheep or goat with hair growing between the two halves of its hoof and causing irritation or bleeding.
A specialized animal-health term.
- Lane · entry 38666
شِعْرَةٌ
Pubic hair, the pubic region, or the place where such hair grows beneath the navel.
The term may refer to the hair itself or, by extension, the adjacent pubic area.
- Lane · entry 38668
شِعْرَةٌ
A portion or strand of hair.
A general nominal use distinct from the specialized pubic sense.
- Lane · entry 38668
شِعْرِيٌّ
Poetic or relating to poetry.
An attributive nisbah adjective.
- Lane · entry 38672
شِعْرِيٌّ
False or lying.
Applied figuratively to evidence or arguments associated with deceptive poetry.
- Lane · entry 38672
شِعْرِيٌّ
Relating to Sirius.
A separate nisbah use from the poetic adjective.
- Lane · entry 38672
شَعَرِيَّاتٌ
The young of a vultur percnopterus.
A specialized plural animal term.
- Lane · entry 38673
شَعْرَانُ
A species of shrub or desert plant, including a type of green or dust-colored ḥamḍ.
The term is also associated with vegetation on which hares feed or in which they lie.
- Lane · entry 38674
شُعْرُورٌ
A poetaster.
A diminutive or disparaging poetic designation.
- Lane · entry 38675
شُعْرُورٌ / شَعَارِيرُ
A fly or flies that gather on a sore or wound on a camel and disperse when disturbed.
A specialized animal term; the plural also occurs in comparisons of dispersal.
- Lane · entry 38675
شَعَارِيرُ
Dispersed or beyond reach.
Used idiomatically of people or things scattering like flies.
- Lane · entry 38675
شَعَارِيرُ
A children's game.
A plural form with no necessary singular in this usage.
- Lane · entry 38675
شَعَارِيرُ
A type of women's neck ornament made like barley grains from gold or silver.
A specialized material-culture term.
- Lane · entry 38675
شُعْرُورَةٌ
A small cucumber.
The singular of a specialized plant term whose plural is شَعَارِيرُ.
- Lane · entry 38675
شَعْرَانِيٌّ
Of a hare that feeds on شَعْرَان and lies concealed in it.
A nisbah adjective describing the hare's association with that plant.
- Lane · entry 38676
شَعَارٌ
Trees, especially tangled, luxuriant, or dense trees; a wooded or sheltered place.
The term can describe land abounding in trees or a depression where people take shelter.
- Lane · entry 38677
شِعَارٌ
A call, cry, banner, or other identifying sign by which companions recognize one another.
Used especially of soldiers, tribes, travelers, and groups in war.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارٌ
Thunder.
A figurative use based on thunder as a sign of rain.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارُ الدَّمِ
A piece of rag or the vulva, each being understood as indicating the presence of blood.
A specialized expression with two reported referents.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارٌ
The garment worn next to the body, beneath the outer garment.
The name reflects its contact with the body's hair.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارٌ
A close or special relationship; intimate friendship.
A figurative extension of the garment closest to the body.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارٌ
A cloth covering a horse for protection from cold.
A specialized equestrian use.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارٌ
A covering that protects wine from wind, rain, or dew while it is in the vat.
A specialized figurative use of a protective covering.
- Lane · entry 38678
شِعَارٌ
Death.
A separately attested nominal use.
- Lane · entry 38678
شَعِيرٌ
Barley, the familiar grain.
The noun has dialectal variation in pronunciation and gender.
- Lane · entry 38679
شَعِيرٌ
An accompanying associate or close companion.
A reported nominal use, possibly connected with sharing an innermost garment.
- Lane · entry 38679
شَعِيرَةٌ
A sign or mark.
A general nominal use from which religious-sign and marking applications develop.
- Lane · entry 38681
شَعِيرَةٌ
A barleycorn.
The singular of شَعِيرٌ, also used as the basis for technical measures and shapes.
- Lane · entry 38681
شَعِيرَةٌ
A small iron or silver fastening inserted into a knife handle and tang.
Named for its barleycorn-like shape.
- Lane · entry 38681
شَعِيرَةٌ
A small traditional unit of length, the sixth part of a digit.
A technical legal and metrological use.
- Lane · entry 38681
شَعِيرَةٌ
The weight of a barleycorn.
A traditional weight based on the grain.
- Lane · entry 38681
شُعَيْرَاءُ
A kind of tree.
A dialectal plant name.
- Lane · entry 38683
شَعِيرِيٌّ
A seller of barley.
A specialized occupational noun.
- Lane · entry 38684
شِعْرٌ شَاعِرٌ
Excellent or especially accomplished poetry.
A cognate intensifying expression; the excellence reading is preferred to the weaker “known poetry” explanation.
- Lane · entry 38685
أَشْعَرُ
More or most knowing, perceptive, or cognizant.
An elative adjective based on the knowledge branch of the root.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
More or most poetic.
Applied to a verse or poem.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
Having abundant or long hair.
Used of people, goats, and other hairy animals; it may also figuratively describe strength like that of a lion.
- Lane · entry 38687
شَعْرَاءُ
A hairy testicle or scrotum, or the pudendum.
A specialized anatomical use of the feminine form.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
A furred garment.
A substantive use of the hairy adjective.
- Lane · entry 38687
دَاهِيَةٌ شَعْرَاءُ
A foul, abominable, severe, or great calamity.
An idiomatic epithet likening a misfortune to something shaggy and unseemly.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
The hair surrounding the solid hoof or marking the end of the pastern hair.
A specialized anatomical term for horses, camels, and similar animals.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَارٌ
The sides or external portions of the vulva.
A specialized anatomical plural, also used of the corresponding parts of a she-camel.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
A wart-like growth emerging between the two halves of a sheep's or goat's hoof.
A specialized veterinary term for a growth treated by cauterization.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
Flesh growing beneath the nail.
A specialized anatomical use.
- Lane · entry 38687
شَعْرَاءُ
Land, a thicket, meadow, or sandy tract rich in trees or vegetation.
The term may describe wooded land, a tree-covered meadow, or sand producing pasture plants.
- Lane · entry 38687
شَعْرَاءُ
A particular shrub of the ḥamḍ class.
A specialized plant name distinct from the broader wooded-land use.
- Lane · entry 38687
أَشْعَرُ
A peach or a species of peach.
A regional or specialized fruit name.
- Lane · entry 38687
شَعْرَاءُ
A stinging fly that attacks animals such as dogs, camels, or asses.
The term covers described varieties of flies, including those that swarm around and sting livestock.
- Lane · entry 38687
شَعْرٌ
A multitude of people.
A figurative extension possibly based on flies occurring in swarms.
- Lane · entry 38687
المَشَاعِرُ
The five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste, and touch.
The plural of مَشْعَرٌ in a specialized sensory use.
- Lane · entry 38689
دِيَةُ المُشْعَرَةِ
The blood compensation exacted for killing a king, traditionally one thousand camels.
A specialized legal expression.
- Lane · entry 38690
مُتَشَاعِرٌ
One who pretends to be a poet without being one.
A participial noun describing assumed poetic identity.
- Lane · entry 38691
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC group represented as شَعْرٌ / شِعْرٌ combines two Quranic lexical branches conventionally distinguished by vocalization: hair and poetry.
The liar sense of شَاعِرٌ is an explicitly attested interpretive branch for Quranic accusations, but the ordinary poet sense remains independently supported.
Some rare tropical, anatomical, dialectal, and technical Classical Arabic usages are retained because they are independently stated in the supplied lexical evidence.