Quranic root
ذرأ
dh · r · ʾ
The root expresses bringing something forth into manifestation and scattering or propagating it; a separate lexical branch denotes whiteness or hoariness.
The bringing-forth branch develops into creating beings and multiplying them, while related Classical Arabic uses preserve sowing, seed, offspring, and scattering. The whiteness branch appears in terms for hoary hair, white salt, and white-marked animals.
- Maqāyīs · row 1888
- Mufradāt · row 502
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ذَرَأَ
dharaʾa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 create; bring beings or things forth into existence.
A Quranic use of bringing created beings into manifestation; context may render it as create or produce.
- Lane · entry 21393
- Mufradāt · row 502
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:179word 2
“We have created”
Quran 6:136word 4
“He produced”
To multiply or make numerous.
In the Quranic construction يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ, the multiplication is explained as producing people and cattle in pairs, male and female.
- Lane · entry 21393
- Mufradāt · row 502
Selected Quran examples
Quran 42:11word 12
“He multiplies you”
Quran 23:79word 3
“multiplied you”
To scatter or disperse.
Represented in a reported rare Quranic reading concerning something scattered by the wind; that reading has no supplied QAC word location and is not counted among the six standard QAC occurrences.
- Lane · entry 21393
- Mufradāt · row 502
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:136ذَرَأَHe produced
- 7:179ذَرَأْنَاWe have created
- 16:13ذَرَأَHe multiplied
- 23:79ذَرَأَكُمْmultiplied you
- 42:11يَذْرَؤُكُمْHe multiplies you
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 20 Classical meanings
ذَرَأَ
To sow land.
The variant ذَرَا is reported as the more eloquent form.
- Lane · entry 21393
ذَرَأَ
For the teeth to fall out of the mouth.
The hamzated form is reported alongside forms without hamza and is described by one authority as weak or a mispronunciation.
- Lane · entry 21393
ذَرِئَ، ذَرَأَ
For the hair to become white or hoary.
The whitening is described especially as beginning in the forepart or upper sides of the head, though the verb is also given more generally for becoming hoary.
- Lane · entry 21393
أَذْرَأَ
To anger or provoke someone to anger.
Form IV transitive use.
- Lane · entry 21394
أَذْرَأَ
To incite, urge, or compel someone to do or undertake something.
With بِـ it may mean incite against a person or urge toward an action; with إِلَى it may mean compel someone to have recourse to or do something.
- Lane · entry 21394
أَذْرَأَ
To make tears flow.
The subject may be a person or a thing.
- Lane · entry 21394
أَذْرَأَ
To frighten someone.
Form IV transitive use.
- Lane · entry 21394
أَذْرَأَ
Of a she-camel, to cause milk to descend into the udder.
A dialectal form reported as a variant of أَدْرَأَ; the transmitted wording is accompanied by a textual qualification about the direction of the milk.
- Lane · entry 21394
ذَرْءٌ
In ذَرْءُ النَّارِ, created or destined for the fire.
A substantival or passive-participial use of the verbal noun in a fixed expression.
- Lane · entry 21395
ذَرْءٌ
The offspring of a person, or the number of that person's offspring.
Used in expressions wishing for an increase in someone's progeny.
- Lane · entry 21395
ذَرْءٌ
A small amount; somewhat or a little.
Used of a small amount of news, good, or speech.
- Lane · entry 21395
ذَرْءٌ
Something intervening as a separation, barrier, or obstacle.
Used in expressions describing what stands between two parties or things.
- Lane · entry 21395
ذُرْأَةٌ
Whiteness or hoariness, especially in the hair; also whiteness mixed with black.
The term may denote the beginning or presence of hoary whiteness in the forepart or upper sides of the head.
- Lane · entry 21397
ذَرْآنِيٌّ
Intensely white salt.
The adjective is derived from ذُرْأَةٌ; a form without hamza is also reported.
- Lane · entry 21398
ذَرِيءٌ
Sown seed.
Nominal adjective or participial description of seed that has been sown.
- Lane · entry 21399
ذُرِّيَّةٌ
Children or offspring; a collective term that may also be used as a singular.
Applied to the offspring of a man, of men, or of jinn.
- Lane · entry 21400
ذُرِّيَّةٌ
Progenitors or forebears.
A Quranic usage in which the term refers to ancestors carried in the laden ark.
- Lane · entry 21400
ذُرِّيَّةٌ
Women.
A transferred use based on women being the sources of offspring.
- Lane · entry 21400
الذَّارِئُ
The Creator, used as an epithet of God.
An active-participial epithet formed from the creating branch of the root.
- Lane · entry 21401
أَذْرَأُ
White-headed; of certain animals, having a white head or, in another application, ears mottled black and white with the rest of the coat black.
Applied to a ram, and in the feminine to a ewe, for whiteness of the head. The mottled-ear sense is applied to a horse or kid, with feminine forms for a female kid or she-goat, and is not applied to sheep-kind.
- Lane · entry 21402
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The reported wind-scattering Quranic reading is rare and has no supplied QAC word location; no occurrence location is assigned to it.
Lane reports several variant hamza spellings and evaluates some of them differently; these variants are retained in usage conditions rather than treated as separate Quranic forms.
Lane's Quran quotations for the separate nominal headword ذُرِّيَّةٌ are retained under that headword and are not conflated with the supplied QAC Form I verb.