Quranic root
شيع
sh · y · ʿ
The root develops along two closely related semantic orientations: support and accompanying alignment, and spreading or making something widely known.
From support and following come meanings of aiding, accompanying, joining, and belonging to a party; from dissemination come meanings of publicizing, becoming widespread, dispersing, sharing in common, and kindling.
- Maqāyīs · row 2740
- Mufradāt · row 806
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
شَاعَ
shāʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To spread, become widely known, or become manifest.
An intransitive use in which information, a report, or another matter becomes public among people; the Quranic form is the active imperfect تَشِيعَ.
- Lane · entry 39784
- Mufradāt · row 806
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:19word 5
“(should) spread”
شِيعَة
shīʿah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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 party, faction, or group united by a common affair, affiliation, leader, or following; followers, assistants, or partisans.
The noun can denote a group or party in both singular and plural usage, including a group aligned with or following a particular person.
- Lane · entry 39796
- Mufradāt · row 806
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:4word 8
“(into) sects”
Quran 28:15word 14
“his party”
A group like another in kind, persuasion, or character; counterparts or people of the same sort.
Especially in plural constructions, it can refer to the likes of earlier peoples or to groups sharing the same persuasion or pattern.
- Lane · entry 39796
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:54word 8
“with their kind”
Quran 37:83word 3
“his kind”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:65شِيَعًۭا(into) sects
- 6:159شِيَعًۭاsects
- 15:10شِيَعِthe sects
- 19:69شِيعَةٍsect
- 24:19تَشِيعَ(should) spread
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 48 Classical meanings
شَاعَ
To become scattered or dispersed; to diffuse or spread through something.
Used of milk dispersing in water, hoariness spreading through hair, a crack spreading in glass, or camels dispersing.
- Lane · entry 39784
شَاعَ
To follow, accompany, or attend; to remain with or follow someone.
Used in expressions such as wishing peace or prosperity to accompany and not leave someone.
- Lane · entry 39784
شَاعَ
To fill a vessel.
A transitive usage with the vessel as object.
- Lane · entry 39784
شَيَّعَ
To call or urge animals so that they follow one another; to blow a shepherd’s reed pipe for this purpose.
Used especially of a shepherd calling camels, sheep, or goats when some lag behind.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَيَّعَ
To send someone or something on, make it follow, or cause one thing to follow another.
Includes the construction of following one thing with another, as in following Ramadan with additional fasting.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَيَّعَ
To accompany someone on departure, bid farewell, or follow behind as a departing person or animal proceeds.
Used especially of accompanying a guest or another departing person as a gesture of courtesy, and of following without catching up.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَيَّعَ
To follow, imitate, conform to, agree with, or comply with someone.
A relational use involving conformity or imitation.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَيَّعَ
To encourage, embolden, or strengthen someone or something.
Often used with an action or undertaking that the person is thereby strengthened to perform.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَيَّعَ
To put slender firewood on a fire so as to make it blaze or burn more fiercely.
A causative use applied to feeding and intensifying a fire.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَيَّعَ
To burn someone or something with fire.
The passive participle may describe something that has been burned.
- Lane · entry 39785
شَايَعَ / مُشَايَعَةٌ
To follow or conform with someone in an affair or opinion, and to support or strengthen him in it.
Used with an affair or opinion; the following may include agreement, compliance, and active support.
- Lane · entry 39786
شَايَعَ / مُشَايَعَةٌ
To befriend someone or act as his ally.
A relational use equivalent to showing friendship or allegiance.
- Lane · entry 39786
شَايَعَ
To call to a herd so that its members follow or find the way.
Used of calling camels or directing a group by a signal or call.
- Lane · entry 39786
أَشَاعَ
To spread, publish, divulge, reveal, or make known information, a report, a secret, or another matter.
A transitive causative counterpart to becoming widespread or public.
- Lane · entry 39787
أَشَاعَ
To disperse or distribute something among a people or group.
Used of property or the contents of a cooking pot being distributed among people.
- Lane · entry 39787
أَشَاعَ
Of a camel, to eject urine in a scattered manner.
A specialized camel-related usage, especially after mating.
- Lane · entry 39787
أَشَاعَ
To make peace, safety, or prosperity accompany and remain with someone.
Used in formulas wishing safety or peace upon another person.
- Lane · entry 39787
تَشَيَّعَ
To profess adherence to the doctrine of the Shiʿa or to become a Shiʿi.
A sectarian doctrinal use derived from the specialized proper-name sense of الشِّيعَة.
- Lane · entry 39788
تَشَيَّعَ
To strive or labor intensely for something out of love for it, even to the point of courting danger or death.
Used with في in an intensive expression of devotion or exertion.
- Lane · entry 39788
تَشَيَّعَ
To be excited, unsettled, or flurried by anger.
Used of anger causing lightness, levity, or unsteadiness.
- Lane · entry 39788
تَشَايَعَ
To become separate parties or factions.
A reciprocal or collective formation of distinct groups, derived from شِيعَة.
- Lane · entry 39789
تَشَايَعَ
To go or proceed together.
A collective use describing people or animals moving together.
- Lane · entry 39789
شَاعٌ
The scattered urine of a camel after mating or sexual excitement.
A specialized noun used of camel urine that is ejected in dispersed drops.
- Lane · entry 39791
شَيْعٌ
A following interval or approximate span of time; the day or period immediately following another.
Used in expressions such as staying a month or its approximate duration, or coming tomorrow or the day after.
- Lane · entry 39792
شَيْعٌ
A successor or counterpart that follows another, or something like another.
Used of the one born next after another and, in another explanation, of a like or counterpart.
- Lane · entry 39792
شَيْعٌ
A follower, friend, comrade, or assistant.
A nominal use for one who accompanies or supports another.
- Lane · entry 39792
شَيْعٌ
A lion’s cub, especially one that has begun to take prey; according to some, a lion.
A zoological meaning with variation in the reported application.
- Lane · entry 39792
شِيعُ نِسَاءٍ
One who follows after women and mixes, associates, or converses with them.
An idiomatic description of a person characterized by association with women.
- Lane · entry 39793
شَاعَةٌ
A wife.
Explained as one who follows or conforms to her husband’s wishes.
- Lane · entry 39794
شَيْعَةٌ
A particular low tree with jointed branches and small dark-red blossoms, used as pasture and valued for its fragrant, healthful properties.
A botanical term for the plant and, by extension in the discussion, its blossom and honey.
- Lane · entry 39795
الشِّيعَة
The later proper name for the sect that follows ʿAlī and the people of his household.
A specialized sectarian use distinct from the general Quranic meaning of a party or faction.
- Lane · entry 39796
شِيَعِيَّةٌ
The doctrinal and practical system of the sect called الشِّيعَة.
A noun for the sect’s body of beliefs and practices.
- Lane · entry 39798
شِيَاعٌ
A shepherd’s reed pipe, or the sound of that pipe.
The instrument is used to call together or direct camels.
- Lane · entry 39800
شِيَاعٌ
Callers or summoners.
A plural-like noun associated with calling or summoning.
- Lane · entry 39800
شِيَاعٌ
Slender firewood that quickly catches and makes a fire blaze.
Used of fuel that prevails over larger or thicker firewood once kindled.
- Lane · entry 39800
شَيِّعٌ
A sharer or partner; something shared or held jointly and undivided.
Used of partners in a house or land and of property held in common.
- Lane · entry 39802
شَائِعٌ
Spreading, widely known, published, or manifest.
Used of information, news, or tidings becoming known among people.
- Lane · entry 39803
شَائِعٌ
Scattered, dispersed, or in a state of dispersion.
A derived adjectival use applied to people or things distributed apart.
- Lane · entry 39803
شَائِعٌ
An undivided lot, share, or portion held in common.
Used of a share that has not been separated or partitioned from the whole.
- Lane · entry 39803
شَائِعٌ
A supplement, addition, or augment to something.
A nominal extension for something added to or accompanying another thing.
- Lane · entry 39803
مَشِيعٌ
Filled, especially filled to capacity when said of a vessel.
Applied to a vessel or container.
- Lane · entry 39805
مَشِيعٌ
Very rancorous, malicious, spiteful, or filled with baseness.
A figurative adjectival use derived from the notion of being filled, sometimes applied to a person by comparison with a particularly rancorous lizard.
- Lane · entry 39805
مِشْيَعَةٌ
A palm-leaf basket or container in which a woman keeps cotton and other belongings.
Named in relation to its accompanying or following its owner.
- Lane · entry 39806
مِشْيَاعٌ
One who cannot keep or conceal a secret; a babbler of news.
A person characterized by readily divulging information.
- Lane · entry 39807
مُشَيَّعٌ
Courageous, emboldened, or strengthened in resolve.
Explained as if encouraged by another, by inner strength, or by undertaking formidable affairs.
- Lane · entry 39808
مُشَيَّعٌ
Very quick, speedy, or hasty.
An adjectival use applied to a person or thing characterized by speed.
- Lane · entry 39808
المُشَيَّعَة
A sheep or goat that follows behind the others or must be urged on to follow them.
Used especially of a weak or lean sacrificial animal that lags behind the flock.
- Lane · entry 39808
مُشَايِعٌ
Overtaking or catching up with another; one who overtakes or comes up with others.
Used of one who gathers up those proceeding behind the rest.
- Lane · entry 39810
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic plural usage corresponding to أَشْيَاع can mean counterparts or peoples of the same persuasion, not only sects in the modern sense.
Three Lane passages remain unresolved because their readings or interpretations are explicitly disputed: the reported intercourse-related use of الشِّيَاع, the reported Form IV meaning of خروج, and the reported Form V meaning of leaving part of something undistributed.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:$yE:39786:g2:main reports الشِّيَاعُ as boasting of frequent intercourse, but another authority identifies it as a transcription error or derives it from a different word; it is therefore not assigned as a secure meaning.
lane-unit:$yE:39787:g1:sub6 reports اِشَاعَت as meaning خرجت but explicitly suspects a transcription error or omission.
lane-unit:$yE:39788:g2:main attributes a meaning to Golius’s copy but notes that the explanation is absent from the consulted copy.