Quranic root
ذبح
dh · b · ḥ
The root centers on cleaving or splitting, especially by cutting through a constricted part such as the throat; it extends to slaughter, opening vessels, channels cut through earth, and related derivatives.
The basic notion of cleaving develops into throat-cutting slaughter and sacrificial killing, while related Classical usages apply the idea to piercing or opening a vessel, cuts and cracks, and channels that cleave the ground.
- Maqāyīs · row 1882
- Mufradāt · row 499
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 9
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ذَبَحَ
dhabaḥa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To slaughter an animal by cutting its throat; to sacrifice it.
The central Quranic use concerns slaughtering an animal, including slaughter for food or sacrifice. Active, passive, and inflected forms are included under this citation form.
- Lane · entry 21325
- Mufradāt · row 499
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:67word 9
“you slaughter”
Quran 2:71word 21
“So they slaughtered it”
Quran 5:3word 23
“is sacrificed”
Quran 37:102word 12
“sacrificing you”
To kill or slay, by extension from slaughter.
An extended use can apply to a person or other living being and need not specify the technical procedure of animal slaughter.
- Lane · entry 21325
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:21word 5
“I will surely slaughter him”
Quran 37:102word 12
“sacrificing you”
ذَبَّحَ
dhabbaḥa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 slaughter or kill repeatedly, in succession, or in large numbers.
The Form II use is explicitly associated with many victims or repeated slaughter; in the Quran it describes the systematic slaughtering of sons.
- Lane · entry 21325
- Mufradāt · row 499
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:49word 9
“slaughtering”
Quran 14:6word 17
“and were slaughtering”
Quran 28:4word 12
“slaughtering”
ذِبْحٌ
dhibḥun
- 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 sacrificial victim: an animal prepared for slaughter or one that has been slaughtered.
The Quranic occurrence denotes a sacrificial victim supplied as a ransom; the noun can refer either to the intended victim or to the completed sacrifice.
- Lane · entry 21329
- Mufradāt · row 499
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:107word 2
“with a sacrifice”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:49يُذَبِّحُونَslaughtering
- 2:67تَذْبَحُوا۟you slaughter
- 2:71فَذَبَحُوهَاSo they slaughtered it
- 5:3ذُبِحَis sacrificed
- 14:6وَيُذَبِّحُونَand were slaughtering
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 30 Classical meanings
ذَبَحَ
To cleave, split, slit, or rip open; specifically, to open a musk follicle or broach a vessel to draw out its contents.
These are non-Quranic extensions of the cleaving notion and include opening by cutting or piercing.
- Lane · entry 21325
ذَبَحَ
To render lawful or allowable.
An extension associated with slaughter making animal flesh lawful as food.
- Lane · entry 21325
ذَبَحَ
To choke or obstruct the breath.
Used of weeping or another thing that constricts the throat.
- Lane · entry 21325
ذَبَحَ
To affect severely or distress through thirst.
Used specifically with thirst as the subject.
- Lane · entry 21325
ذَبَحَ
Of a beard, to flow down beneath the chin so that the front of the area under the jaw becomes visible.
A specialized descriptive use concerning the growth or fall of the beard.
- Lane · entry 21325
ذَبَّحَ
To lower the head while inclining the body in prayer.
A reported usage, attributed to some authorities but disputed by another authority, who regarded the form as a mistake for دبَّحَ.
- Lane · entry 21326
تَذَابَحُوا
To slaughter or slay one another.
Reciprocal Form VI usage; the associated saying about mutual praise is a figurative application of this meaning.
- Lane · entry 21327
اِذَّبَحَ
To take or prepare a slaughtered animal for oneself.
Form VIII usage concerning obtaining a prepared slaughtered or sacrificed animal.
- Lane · entry 21328
ذِبْحٌ
An animal sacrificed to the jinn as an offering intended to avert harm or ill luck.
A culturally specific sacrificial practice, distinct from the Quranic ransom context.
- Lane · entry 21329
ذُبَحٌ
A red edible plant, including a plant whose root or stem yields a sweet edible substance.
A collective plant name with variant descriptions in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 21330
ذُبَحٌ
A species of white truffle.
A separate nominal plant or fungus designation.
- Lane · entry 21330
ذِبْحَةٌ
A mode or manner of slaughter.
A verbal noun or manner noun referring to the procedure of slaughter.
- Lane · entry 21333
ذُبَحَةٌ
A disease, ulcer, or obstructive swelling in the throat that can choke and kill.
The term may also be used figuratively for an inwardly harmful condition.
- Lane · entry 21334
ذُبَاحٌ
A poisonous plant.
The plant is described as poisonous to those who eat it.
- Lane · entry 21336
ذُبَاحٌ
A quick or sudden death.
Used in the expression موتٌ ذُبَاحٌ.
- Lane · entry 21336
ذَبِيحٌ
Cleft, slit, or ripped open.
An adjectival or passive-participial use corresponding to the non-slaughter cleaving branch.
- Lane · entry 21338
ذَبِيحٌ
Slaughtered or sacrificed; a slaughtered animal.
The adjective may be applied substantivally and may agree with animals of different grammatical gender and number.
- Lane · entry 21338
ذَبِيحٌ
Fit, proper, destined, or prepared to be slaughtered as a sacrifice.
This describes the intended sacrificial victim before the slaughter has necessarily been carried out.
- Lane · entry 21338
ذَبِيحٌ
A slain man.
An extended substantival use for a human victim.
- Lane · entry 21338
ذَبَّاحٌ
A person whose occupation or habitual work is slaughtering; an executioner.
The occupational sense includes the later use for an executioner.
- Lane · entry 21340
ذُبَّاحٌ
Cracks or cuts in the inner sides or sole of the foot, especially near the toes.
A bodily-condition noun with plural ذَبَابِيحُ.
- Lane · entry 21341
ذَابِحٌ
The name of a pair of bright stars in Capricorn, one appearing to threaten a nearby small star as though about to slaughter it.
A traditional astronomical name for one of the lunar mansions.
- Lane · entry 21342
ذَابِحٌ
A mark made with a hot iron across the throat, or the instrument used to make it.
A specialized object noun derived from the slaughtering action.
- Lane · entry 21342
ذَابِحٌ
Hair growing between the area beneath the lower jaw and the throat area used for slaughter.
A specialized anatomical or descriptive use.
- Lane · entry 21342
ذَابِحَةٌ
An animal allowable or suitable for slaughter, including camels, cattle, sheep, and goats.
This denotes eligibility for slaughter rather than the completed act.
- Lane · entry 21343
مَذْبَحٌ
The place where slaughter is performed, including the throat region that serves as the site of slaughter.
The term may denote either a physical place or the anatomical slaughtering site.
- Lane · entry 21344
مَذْبَحٌ
The chancel or altar area of a church, where offerings are made.
A figurative extension of the place of sacrifice; its plural is مَذَابِحُ.
- Lane · entry 21344
مَذْبَحٌ
A trench or channel in the earth, including a small torrent channel that cleaves the ground.
A topographical use for a natural or water-cut channel.
- Lane · entry 21344
مِذْبَحٌ
A knife or other instrument used to perform slaughter.
The instrument need not be a knife if it serves the same slaughtering function.
- Lane · entry 21345
مَذْبُوحٌ
Clean or pure and not requiring slaughter, as applied to things in the sea.
An extended usage treating such things as already exempt from the need for slaughter.
- Lane · entry 21346
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I public headword is normalized to the standard perfect citation form ذَبَحَ rather than the inflected QAC lemma display candidate.
The reported prayer-related Form II usage is retained as a Classical meaning because it is lexically stated, but the supplied evidence records a grammatical and lexical dispute over it.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
In lane-unit:*bH:21334:g1:main, the wording surrounding a proverb about covetousness also mentions a poisonous plant, but the exact attachment of that phrase is unclear in the supplied transcription. The independently stated poisonous-plant sense is represented under ذُبَاحٌ from lane-unit:*bH:21336:g1:main.