Quranic root
ذهب
dh · h · b
The root combines the radiance and beauty associated with gold with the movement or passing-away of a thing.
From these orientations develop the senses of going, departing, being removed, and taking something away, alongside derivatives for gold, gilding, routes or doctrines, and related figurative uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 1917
- Mufradāt · row 512
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 56
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ذَهَبَ
dhahaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 35 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 go, pass along, proceed, travel, or depart.
An intransitive verb of movement; it may take إِلَى for a destination and may describe movement in any manner or at any pace.
- Lane · entry 21790
- Mufradāt · row 512
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:17word 4
“[we] went”
Quran 12:87word 2
“Go”
To go away, leave, or pass away; of an affliction, quality, or force, to cease or dissipate.
With عَنْ, the subject goes away from or ceases to affect someone or something. The sense can also be figurative, as when a force or condition disappears.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:74word 2
“(had) gone away”
Quran 13:17word 30
“it passes away”
With بِ, to go away with, carry off, take possession of, or appropriate something.
The بِ construction may emphasize accompanying or carrying something away, or the resulting acquisition of it; in the Quran it can describe securing part of something previously given.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:19word 13
“so that you may take”
With بِ, to cause something to go away: to take away, remove, dispel, or make it cease.
This transitive construction is used for physical or abstract objects, including light and other conditions; it need not mean that the agent accompanies the object.
- Lane · entry 21790
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:17word 10
“took away”
Quran 2:20word 17
“He would certainly have taken away”
To perish or be consumed, especially in the Quranic expression concerning one’s self being overcome by grief.
A figurative idiom in which the going-away of the self is associated with death or ruin, rather than ordinary physical travel.
- Mufradāt · row 512
Selected Quran examples
Quran 35:8word 17
“go out”
أَذْهَبَ
ʾadhhaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To make something or someone go away; to remove, dispel, or take away.
A causative Form IV verb used for people, afflictions, sins, sorrow, ritual impurity, and other things that can be made to disappear or cease.
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Selected Quran examples
ذَاهِب
dhāhib
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
Going, proceeding, or departing.
The active participle of ذَهَبَ; it may be followed by إِلَى to state the destination or goal.
- Lane · entry 21802
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:99word 3
“going”
ذَهَاب
dhahāb
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Going, departure, or passing away; in transitive use, taking something away.
A verbal noun of ذَهَبَ, covering the process or result of going and, with the relevant construction, being carried away or removed.
- Lane · entry 21790
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:18word 11
“taking it away”
ذَهَب
dhahab
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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.
Gold, the familiar precious metal.
A collective-generic noun; it may be treated as masculine or feminine in Classical Arabic and can also denote a piece of gold through a derived form.
- Lane · entry 21795
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Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:17ذَهَبَtook away
- 2:20لَذَهَبَHe would certainly have taken away
- 3:14ٱلذَّهَبِ[the] gold
- 3:91ذَهَبًۭا(of) gold
- 4:19لِتَذْهَبُوا۟so that you may take
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 25 Classical meanings
ذَهَبَ
In figurative uses, to be lost, wasted, consumed, or exhausted; of the reason or heart, to forsake someone; of a person, to disappear among people; or of water, to disappear in milk.
A group of established figurative extensions of going-away and disappearance.
- Lane · entry 21790
ذَهَبَ فِي الأَرْضِ
To go into the open country and, in a tropical use, to void excrement.
The excretory sense is a specialized tropical use of the construction with فِي الأَرْضِ.
- Lane · entry 21790
ذَهَبَ عَلَيْهِ
To escape someone’s memory; to be forgotten or become unclear to someone.
Used with عَلَيْهِ; the related extension includes becoming dubious, confused, or vague.
- Lane · entry 21790
ذَهَبَ
To pursue a way, course, mode, or manner of conduct, and hence to adopt or hold a doctrine, opinion, or religious persuasion.
Includes expressions with مَذْهَبٌ and ذَهَبَ إِلَى for adopting a view or creed.
- Lane · entry 21790
ذَهَبَ
To treat one word or expression as equivalent to another, or as etymologically related to it.
A technical interpretive use concerning the relation or equivalence of expressions.
- Lane · entry 21790
ذَهَبَ فِي كُلِّ مَذْهَبٍ
To pursue every possible method or go to the utmost degree in doing or seeking something.
An idiomatic use of مَذْهَبٌ; it may describe exhaustive effort or an extreme degree of a quality.
- Lane · entry 21790
اِذْهَبْ إِلَيْكَ
To attend to one’s own affairs or occupy oneself with them.
A specialized imperative expression meaning to betake oneself to one’s own concerns.
- Lane · entry 21790
ذَهَبَ إِلَى أَبِيهِ فِي الشَّبَهِ
To resemble one’s father or incline toward him in likeness.
A figurative construction with إِلَى and فِي الشَّبَهِ.
- Lane · entry 21790
أَذْهَبَ / ذَهَّبَ
To gild something or overlay it with gold.
The source explicitly applies the gilding meaning to both the Form IV and Form II derived verbs.
- Lane · entry 21792
تَمَذْهَبَ
To follow or adopt a particular religious persuasion or similar doctrinal position.
A late-writer usage derived from مَذْهَبٌ.
- Lane · entry 21793
ذَهَب
The yolk, or the entire contents, of an egg.
A separate Classical noun use, distinct from the precious-metal noun.
- Lane · entry 21795
ذَهَب
A known measure of capacity for grain used in Yemen.
A regional technical noun with its own plural forms.
- Lane · entry 21795
ذِهْبَة
Rain, variously described as weak, ordinary, or copious.
The lexical authorities differ over the quantity intended; the noun is also reported with a plural in ذِهَابٌ.
- Lane · entry 21797
ذَاهِب
Excessive in length or tallness.
A figurative adjectival extension, especially in ذَاهِبٌ فِي الطُّولِ.
- Lane · entry 21802
مَذْهَب
A place, time, or way of going; a destination or route.
A derived noun covering the place or time of departure and the way by which one goes.
- Lane · entry 21803
مَذْهَب
A place to which one goes to relieve oneself: a privy or lavatory.
A regional tropical use, especially associated with the dialect of the people of al-Ḥijāz.
- Lane · entry 21803
مَذْهَب
A way, course, or manner of conduct; a belief, creed, doctrine, opinion, or body of religious tenets.
The noun extends from a pursued course to a settled intellectual or religious position.
- Lane · entry 21803
مَذْهَب
Origin or provenance.
Used in expressions asking where a person’s origin is not known.
- Lane · entry 21803
مُذْهَب
Gilt, overlaid with gold, or ornamented with gold; applied to gilt skins, straps, figured garments, and adorned swords.
An adjectival/passive-participial use that can describe regular gilded patterns or ornamentation.
- Lane · entry 21804
مُذْهَب
Of a horse, red in color with a yellowish or golden tinge.
A specialized color adjective; the corresponding mare is described as having a clearer color and thinner skin.
- Lane · entry 21804
المُذْهَب
A name for the Kaʿbah.
A proper-name use of the otherwise adjectival form.
- Lane · entry 21804
مُذْهِب
A person who gilds or applies gold ornamentation.
An agent noun corresponding to the gilding sense.
- Lane · entry 21805
مُذْهِب
A reported name for a devil or for one who inspires vain suggestions, especially suggestions connected with acts of worship.
An attributed and disputed lexical use; it is also applied to someone who embellishes disobedience or induces obsessive doubt.
- Lane · entry 21805
مَذْهَبَة
A cause or means of doing away with, removing, or dispelling something.
The attested example describes fasting as a means of dispelling excessive exultation.
- Lane · entry 21806
ذَهِبَ
To become dazzled and bewildered on suddenly seeing much gold in a mine, with one’s reason departing and one’s eyes becoming confused.
A specialized verbal use describing the overwhelming effect of unexpectedly seeing gold; it is distinct from the ordinary verb of going or departing.
- Lane · entry 21790
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I construction ذَهَبَ بِهِ has overlapping senses of accompanying or carrying something away and causing it to disappear; the Quranic examples support both acquisition/carrying-off and removal contexts.
The devil-related use of مُذْهِبٌ is attributed in the lexical record and its status as genuine Arabic is disputed.