Quranic root
شيأ
sh · y · ʾ
The root's documented semantic field centers on willing or bringing something about, with شَيْءٌ understood as what may be known, willed, or brought into existence. It also preserves a separate lexical branch for making a face or bodily form ugly.
The noun شَيْءٌ is analyzed as related to شَاءَ and can thereby denote what is willed or caused to exist, while also functioning as the broadest term for an entity or matter. Independent derived branches concern inciting someone, compelling someone, appeasing anger, and rendering a form unsound or ugly.
- Maqāyīs · row 2733
- Mufradāt · row 801
- Lane · entry 39701
- Lane · entry 39702
- Lane · entry 39711
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 519
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
شَاءَ
shāʾa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 236 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 will, wish, desire, or intend something.
Used of human or divine willing. The subject, person, number, tense, and voice vary throughout the Quran without creating separate lexical senses.
- Lane · entry 39701
- Mufradāt · row 801
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:29word 6
“wills”
To will something effectively, determining that it occur or come into existence.
Especially in statements concerning God's will, the willing is presented as effectual and connected with the realization of what is willed. Human willing may instead express desire or intention without guaranteeing realization; the lexical tradition also records ordinary overlap with إرادة.
- Lane · entry 39701
- Mufradāt · row 801
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:9word 8
“He willed”
Quran 2:20word 15
“had willed”
شَيْءٌ
shayʾun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 283 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 thing, entity, matter, or anything that can be known or have something predicated of it.
A very broad generic noun covering concrete or abstract referents. In Quranic usage it can occur in singular form with a distributive or generic sense, including 'any one or more'; in the expression أَيُّ شَيْءٍ أَكْبَرُ شَهَادَةً, the thing is construed as the bearer of the stated predicate. The extension of the term to nonexistent objects is a recorded but disputed theoretical analysis.
- Lane · entry 39705
- Mufradāt · row 801
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:101word 16
“thing”
What is willed, intended, brought into being, or caused to exist; a willed or created thing.
The noun may function as a verbal noun in the sense of a passive participle, especially in Quranic statements about universal creation or what is brought into existence. This use presents the referent as the object or result of willing or making, without restricting it to a previously existing material object.
- Lane · entry 39705
- Mufradāt · row 801
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:16word 42
“things”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:20شَآءَhad willed
- 2:20شَىْءٍۢthing
- 2:29شَىْءٍthing
- 2:35شِئْتُمَاyou [both] wish
- 2:48شَيْـًۭٔاanything
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 16 Classical meanings
شَيَّأَ
To incite or induce someone to undertake an affair.
Form II transitive usage, commonly construed with the person induced and the matter undertaken.
- Lane · entry 39702
شَيَّأَ
To render someone's face or bodily make foul, unseemly, or ugly.
A Form II causative usage applied to a person's face or physical make.
- Lane · entry 39702
أَشَاءَهُ
To compel, constrain, or necessitate someone to have recourse to something.
Form IV dialectal usage, identified as a dialect variant of أَجَاءَهُ and associated with the speech of Temeem.
- Lane · entry 39703
تَشَيَّأَ
For anger to become appeased.
Form V intransitive usage, said of a man.
- Lane · entry 39704
شَيْءٌ
Nothing; for nothing.
A conventional negative construction, especially لَا شَيْئًا, لِلَا شَيْءٍ, or لَا شَيْءٌ, whose interpretation is supplied by the surrounding syntax.
- Lane · entry 39705
لَيْسَ بِشَيْءٍ
To be of no account, weight, or worth; not to be worthy of notice.
Fixed negative idiom rather than a separate ordinary noun sense.
- Lane · entry 39705
لَيْسَ مِنَ الأَمْرِ فِي شَيْءٍ
To have no concern or involvement with an affair.
Conventional phrase governing the relation of a person to an affair.
- Lane · entry 39705
شَيْءٌ
Somewhat; to some degree.
Adverbial or comparative use, as in فِيهِ شَيْءٌ مِنَ الطُّولِ or هُوَ أَحْسَنُ مِنْكَ شَيْئًا.
- Lane · entry 39705
مَا أَغْفَلَهُ عَنْكَ شَيْئًا
A disputed idiomatic expression interpreted as dismissing doubt about someone's being occupied with a matter.
The grammatical and semantic analysis is explicitly uncertain; شيئا has been explained either as an accusative verbal noun or as a specificative element.
- Lane · entry 39705
شَيْئًا فَشَيْئًا
Thing by thing; bit by bit, gradually, or piecemeal.
Reduplicated sequential construction expressing progressive small increments.
- Lane · entry 39705
شَيْءٌ
The penis of a man.
A rare anatomical application marked in the evidence as an assumed tropical usage.
- Lane · entry 39705
شَيْءٌ
In technical mathematics, a square root or an unknown number multiplied by itself.
Technical usage in algebra and related mathematical terminology, distinct from the ordinary noun.
- Lane · entry 39705
شَيْءٌ
Water.
A rare sense attributed to Lth and explicitly disputed by AM; retained as a reported Classical usage rather than a secure ordinary meaning.
- Lane · entry 39705
يَا شَيْءَ
An exclamation of regret, wonder, or admiration: 'Oh!' or 'O my wonder!'
Occurs in the exclamatory construction يَا شَيْءَ مَا لِي and related variants; the same construction may express admiration such as 'How good or beautiful this is.'
- Lane · entry 39705
شِيْئَةٌ
Will, wish, or desire.
A substantive derived from شَاءَ; the related form مَشِيْئَةٌ is used in the same sense.
- Lane · entry 39706
مُشَيَّأٌ
Incongruous, unsound, foul, or ugly in bodily make or formation.
The evidence also applies the word specifically to a child born preposterously with the legs emerging before the arms.
- Lane · entry 39711
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The effective-will sense is especially associated with divine willing; human willing may denote desire or intention without implying realization, and the evidence records theological disagreement about how مشيئة relates to إرادة.
The noun's extension to nonexistent objects is reported as a disputed theoretical analysis, not an unqualified Quranic definition.
The reported water sense is attributed to Lth but rejected or not recognized by AM; it is retained only as a qualified Classical report.