Quranic root
شرر
sh · r · r
The root's basic orientation is spreading, scattering, and flying apart. Its principal lexical branches include evil as the opposite of good and sparks flying from fire.
The same image extends to sparks, cutting or separating, spreading things out to dry, scattered herds, and figurative concentration of one's scattered aims or whole self upon something.
- Maqāyīs · row 2606
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 31
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
شَرّ
sharr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 30 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.
Evil, badness, wrongdoing, injustice, corruption, or harmful misfortune; also a person or group characterized by such qualities.
Used as an abstract noun for what is opposed to good, and substantivally for bad or evil people. The context may specify moral evil, physical harm, or an evil condition.
- Lane · entry 38166
- Mufradāt · row 755
Selected Quran examples
Worse or worst in comparison.
Used comparatively with مِنْ for “worse than,” and in superlative or elliptical constructions for “the worst.”
- Lane · entry 38166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:60word 4
“(of) worse”
شَرَر
sharar
- 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 spark or sparks flying from a fire.
A noun for fiery particles emitted and scattered from a flame.
- Lane · entry 38170
- Mufradāt · row 755
Selected Quran examples
Quran 77:32word 3
“sparks”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 31 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 38 Classical meanings
شَرَّ
To become evil, wicked, unjust, corrupt, mischievous, or depraved; also to increase in evil.
An intransitive Form I verb describing a person’s becoming or growing worse.
- Lane · entry 38158
شَرَّهُ
To blame, find fault with, or charge someone with a vice, defect, or other fault.
A transitive Form I construction taking the person blamed or charged as its object.
- Lane · entry 38158
شَرَّهُ
To spread something in the sun, or lay it out to dry; also to sprinkle salt.
Used of garments, cloth, food, salt, and similar things placed on a mat or other surface for drying or treatment.
- Lane · entry 38158
شَرَّرَهُ
To make someone notorious or infamous among people.
A Form II causative/intensive verb.
- Lane · entry 38159
شَارَّهُ
To act evilly or hostilely toward someone, contend or dispute with him, or do him evil that obliges a reciprocal response.
A reciprocal Form III construction describing hostile interaction.
- Lane · entry 38160
أَشَرَّهُ
To attribute or impute evil, wrongdoing, injustice, or a fault to someone.
A Form IV construction; its usage is reported with some grammatical disagreement.
- Lane · entry 38161
أَشَرُّوهُ
To banish or drive someone away, leaving him alone.
A reported Form IV usage in the plural verbal form.
- Lane · entry 38161
أَشَرَّهُ
To manifest, reveal, publish, or make something known.
A reported tropical usage, with the cited poetic attribution itself treated as tentative in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 38161
اِشْتَرَّ
Of a camel or other cloven-hoofed animal, to ruminate or chew the cud.
A Form VIII animal-related usage.
- Lane · entry 38162
اِسْتَشَرَّ
To become the possessor of a great herd of camels.
A Form X usage associated with a herd called إِشْرَارَة.
- Lane · entry 38163
شَرْشَرَهُ
To split, cleave, or cut something into many pieces.
A reduplicated Form I usage describing extensive cutting or division.
- Lane · entry 38164
شَرْشَرَهُ
To bite and then shake an object; of a serpent, to bite someone.
The object bitten may be a thing or a person; the serpent construction specifically denotes biting.
- Lane · entry 38164
شَرْشَرَتِ المَاشِيَةُ
For livestock to eat vegetation.
An intransitive animal construction with herbage as the consumed vegetation.
- Lane · entry 38164
شَرْشَرَ السِّكِّينَ
To sharpen or rub a knife against a stone so that its edge becomes rough.
A transitive construction describing treatment of a knife edge.
- Lane · entry 38164
شَرْشَرَ
For a bird to expand and flap its wings without alighting.
An intransitive bird-related usage.
- Lane · entry 38164
تَشَرْشَرَ
To become separated or scattered.
A Form V-like reflexive/intransitive usage describing dispersal.
- Lane · entry 38165
شَرّ
Poverty.
A reported tropical extension of the noun’s lexical range.
- Lane · entry 38166
شَرّ
Fever.
A separately reported tropical extension of the noun’s lexical range.
- Lane · entry 38166
الشَّرّ
The Evil One, namely Iblis.
A conventional epithet referring specifically to Iblis.
- Lane · entry 38166
شُرّ
A vice, fault, defect, blemish, or thing disapproved of, disliked, or hated.
A distinct vocalized noun for an objectionable defect or matter.
- Lane · entry 38167
شِرَّة
Inordinate desire or eagerness, youthful sprightliness, sharpness, or anger.
The noun may describe energetic eagerness generally, including the idiom of eagerness for something.
- Lane · entry 38168
شَرِير
The side or shore of a sea or great river, or the area near it.
A distinct nominal usage, with a plural referring also to seas or great rivers.
- Lane · entry 38171
شَرِير
A kind of tree that grows in a sea or great river.
A reported botanical usage attributed to some authorities.
- Lane · entry 38171
شَرِيرَة
A large iron needle or bodkin.
A specialized concrete noun for a large needle used as a مِسَلَّة.
- Lane · entry 38173
شِرَّار
Emitting many sparks; a fire that throws off many sparks.
An intensive adjective applied especially to fire.
- Lane · entry 38174
شَرَّان
Certain small insects resembling gnats that cover a person’s face without biting.
A dialectal regional term, reported for the people of al-Sawad.
- Lane · entry 38175
شِرِّير
Abounding in evil or wrongdoing; very evil.
An intensive adjective applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 38176
شَرْشَر
A desert plant that spreads along the ground in long, rope-like growths.
A botanical noun for a known plant of the desert plain.
- Lane · entry 38177
شِوَاءٌ شَرْشَر
Roasted meat from which the grease or gravy drips.
A fixed descriptive expression for dripping roasted meat.
- Lane · entry 38177
شَرْشَرَة
A fringe-like extremity of a tail or wing.
Usually encountered in the plural شَرَاشِر for projecting or dangling extremities.
- Lane · entry 38179
شَرَاشِر
The whole body, self, weight, or burdens carried by a person.
A figurative plural usage, especially in the expression أَلْقَى عَلَيْهِ شَرَاشِرَهُ, “he cast his whole self or weight upon it.”
- Lane · entry 38179
شَرَاشِر
Intense desire, eagerness, or love directed toward something.
A figurative idiomatic usage describing complete absorption or devotion.
- Lane · entry 38179
شِرْشِرَة
A piece or fragment of anything.
A concrete noun for an individual piece.
- Lane · entry 38181
شُرْشُور
A small dust-colored bird.
A regional bird name, especially associated with the Hijaz and desert Arabs.
- Lane · entry 38182
شُرَّى
A woman who greatly imputes vices, faults, or similar defects to others.
A specialized feminine usage of the comparative-related form.
- Lane · entry 38183
إِشْرَارَة
A mat, cloth, or tablet on which curd, meat, or other food is spread to dry.
A concrete drying surface; its plural may also denote strips of meat cut and dried.
- Lane · entry 38184
إِشْرَارَة
A great herd of camels.
A specialized noun explained as referring to a scattered herd.
- Lane · entry 38184
المُشَرْشِر
The lion.
An epithet derived from biting and shaking its prey.
- Lane · entry 38186
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Lane and Maqayis evidence is indexed under the contracted heading شر, while the canonical QAC root is the geminate root شرر.
The Quranic شَرّ group includes ordinary evil, substantivized bad people, and comparative or superlative contexts; English renderings therefore vary between “evil,” “bad,” “worse,” and “worst.”
The reported Form IV meaning “to reveal or publish” is marked as tropical and accompanied by a disputed poetic reading; it is retained as a Classical meaning rather than treated as Quranic evidence.