Quranic root
أكل
ʾ · k · l
The root centers on taking something in and thereby diminishing or consuming it.
From eating food, the semantic field extends to consuming property, wearing something away, devouring or destroying, and figuratively taking a person's reputation or livelihood.
- Maqāyīs · row 126
- Mufradāt · row 46
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 10
- Quran senses
- 109
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَكَلَ
ʾakala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 93 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 eat or consume food and other edible matter.
The ordinary physical act of taking food into the body; grammatical tense, mood, person, and number vary across the Quranic occurrences.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:187word 31
“And eat”
To consume, appropriate, or expend wealth or property, especially wrongfully.
A figurative extension of physical consumption used with wealth, property, or possessions; the Quran applies it particularly to unlawful appropriation and expenditure.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:10word 3
“consume”
To defame or backbite someone, figuratively consuming the person's honor or flesh.
An idiomatic use, especially for speaking against someone in their absence; the Quran expresses it through the image of eating a dead brother's flesh.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 49:12word 21
“eat”
To enjoy abundant means of subsistence or prosperity.
In the construction describing people eating from above and beneath them, the verb conveys the availability of plentiful provision and worldly sustenance.
- Lane · entry 6963
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:66word 11
“surely they (would have) eaten”
آكِل
ʾākil
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who eats; an eater or consumer.
The Quranic form is plural and refers to those who eat, including those who consume the food described in the surrounding context.
- Lane · entry 6989
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:20word 9
“for those who eat”
Quran 37:66word 2
“(will) surely eat”
Quran 56:52word 1
“Will surely eat”
أَكْل
ʾakl
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
Eating or consuming.
The verbal noun denotes the act or process of eating, with context determining whether the object is food or something consumed figuratively.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Mufradāt · row 46
Consumption or wrongful appropriation of property and wealth.
Used of taking, spending, or devouring wealth in a manner contrary to right; the Quranic contexts concern illicit gain and devouring inheritance.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:161word 6
“and (for) their consuming”
Quran 5:62word 8
“and eating”
Quran 89:19word 3
“devouring”
أَكَّال
ʾakkāl
- Part of speech
- Intensive 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.
A habitual or voracious consumer; a devourer.
In the Quranic occurrence, the plural form characterizes persistent consumers of unlawful gain rather than merely ordinary eaters.
- Lane · entry 6983
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:42word 3
“devourers”
أُكُل
ʾukul
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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.
Edible produce: food, fruit, harvest, or the yield of a tree or garden.
In the Quran, the word occurs chiefly for the fruit or produce yielded by plants, orchards, and gardens; it can more generally denote what is eaten.
- Lane · entry 6973
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
مَأْكُول
maʾkūl
- Part of speech
- Passive 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.
Eaten, consumed, or eaten away; reduced to destruction.
In the Quranic simile, the passive participle describes something so consumed or worn away that it is destroyed, as with straw eaten by an animal.
- Lane · entry 6984
- Lane · entry 6998
- Mufradāt · row 46
Selected Quran examples
Quran 105:5word 3
“eaten up”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 109 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 59 Classical meanings
أَكْل
The completion or cessation of one's means of eating, figuratively, death or the end of life.
Occurs in idioms such as “his eating was cut off” and “he completed his eating.”
- Lane · entry 6963
- Mufradāt · row 46
أَكَلَ رَؤْقَهُ
To consume one's prime or life and become extremely old, with the teeth falling away.
An idiomatic figurative use concerning advanced age.
- Lane · entry 6963
أَكَلَ
To devour or consume something through the action of fire.
Used of fire consuming fuel or firewood.
- Lane · entry 6963
أَكَلَ
To wear away, abrade, or erode something.
Applied figuratively to stones wearing away nails and to comparable destructive action.
- Lane · entry 6963
أَكَلَ عُمُرَهُ
To consume or use up one's lifetime.
A figurative expression for the passing or expenditure of life, distinct from the idiom specifically meaning death.
- Lane · entry 6963
أَكَلَ
To overcome, eliminate, or supersede something, including by conquering or taking its possessions.
Figurative expressions describe a town devouring other towns or one report overriding other reports.
- Lane · entry 6963
أَكْلُ السِّكِّينِ اللَّحْمَ
The cutting of flesh by a knife, conceived as the knife eating the flesh.
A figurative construction based on the action of a cutting instrument.
- Lane · entry 6963
أَكِلَ، أُكَال
To become corroded, cankered, decayed, or eaten away internally.
Applied to a limb, sore, piece of wood, or other material whose parts wear away against one another; also used of teeth that waste or break down.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Lane · entry 6971
- Lane · entry 6981
إِكْلَة، أَكِلَة، أُكَال
An itch, itching, or irritating bodily sensation.
Includes the specialized description of irritation in a pregnant she-camel's belly caused by the growth of the fetus's hair or fur.
- Lane · entry 6963
- Lane · entry 6972
- Lane · entry 6976
- Lane · entry 6981
أَكَّلَ
To make someone eat; to feed people or livestock.
The causative Form II construction may describe feeding others with one's property or cattle, or cattle being allowed to pasture.
- Lane · entry 6964
يُؤَكَّلُ
To be pastured or allowed to graze freely.
A passive or variant construction used of livestock feeding themselves in pasture.
- Lane · entry 6964
أَكَّلَ
To charge or accuse someone of having done something.
An idiomatic causative construction literally framed as making someone eat what he did not eat.
- Lane · entry 6964
آكَلَ
To eat with another person.
The reciprocal Form III construction denotes sharing a meal.
- Lane · entry 6965
مُؤَاكَلَة
A thing given by a debtor to a creditor so that the creditor refrains from collecting the debt.
A specialized conventional use of reciprocal eating in a debt relationship.
- Lane · entry 6965
آكَلَ
To have ripe fruit or to supply food.
Said of a palm tree, seed crop, or other thing that produces edible yield.
- Lane · entry 6966
آكَلَ
To give someone something to eat or feed someone with it.
The Form IV causative construction is applied to supplying food to a person.
- Lane · entry 6966
آكَلَ النَّارَ
To feed or supply a fire with fuel.
A causative construction with fire as the recipient of fuel.
- Lane · entry 6966
آكَلَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ
To spread calumny, cause dissension, or incite people against one another.
A figurative Form IV construction for stirring conflict or mischief among people.
- Lane · entry 6966
آكَلَ فُلَانًا فُلَانًا
To give one person dominion, authority, or power over another.
A conventional causative construction expressing the transfer of control.
- Lane · entry 6966
تَأَكَّلَ
To shine, gleam, or glisten intensely.
Used of a sharp sword, molten silver, lightning, collyrium, aloes, or another bright object.
- Lane · entry 6967
ائْتَكَلَ
To wound or defame people's reputations, especially by “eating their flesh.”
A derived idiom for attacking or speaking ill of people; this Classical use is distinct from the Quranic Form I entry as a derived-form expression.
- Lane · entry 6968
ائْتَكَلَتِ النَّارُ
For a fire to blaze or flame vehemently, as though its parts devoured one another.
A reciprocal/intransitive figurative description of intensely burning fire.
- Lane · entry 6968
ائْتَكَلَ مِنَ الغَضَبِ
To burn or burn fiercely with anger; to become provoked and vehement.
A figurative derived construction describing intense anger.
- Lane · entry 6968
اِسْتَأْكَلَ
To ask or beg someone to assign or provide something as food or a means of subsistence.
The Form X construction expresses seeking an assigned livelihood or edible provision.
- Lane · entry 6969
يَسْتَأْكِلُ الضُّعَفَاءَ
To take and devour the possessions of weak people.
A figurative Form X construction for exploiting vulnerable people materially.
- Lane · entry 6969
أُكُل
Livelihood, worldly good fortune, or ample means of subsistence.
A figurative nominal sense for a person's share of worldly provision, distinct from the Quranic fruit/produce sense.
- Lane · entry 6973
- Lane · entry 6991
- Lane · entry 6992
- Lane · entry 6993
- Mufradāt · row 46
ذُو أُكُلٍ
Thickness, substantialness, closeness, or strength of texture in cloth or paper.
A figurative nominal use describing dense or substantial weave or material.
- Lane · entry 6973
- Mufradāt · row 46
ذُو أُكُلٍ
Intelligence, judgment, or firmness of intellect.
A figurative description of a person possessing sound understanding and judgment.
- Lane · entry 6973
أَكْلَة
A single act or occasion of eating, commonly a meal sufficient to satisfy.
Can refer to customary meals such as the morning or evening meal.
- Lane · entry 6974
أُكْلَة
A morsel, mouthful, or small portion of food; also a small round cake of bread.
The diminutive food sense is distinct from أَكْلَة, the name of a full eating occasion.
- Lane · entry 6975
أُكْلَة
An assigned or granted means of subsistence, provision, land, revenue, or tax share.
A conventional nominal sense for a grant that is assigned to a person and need not be accounted for as an ordinary debt.
- Lane · entry 6975
أُكْلَة
Defamation or backbiting, especially defamation of an absent person.
A figurative nominal use for attacking another's reputation by speech.
- Lane · entry 6975
إِكْلَة
The mode, manner, state, or posture in which one eats.
Includes the eater's manner of sitting or reclining while eating.
- Lane · entry 6976
أَكُول، أَكَّال
A person who eats much; a great, voracious, or edacious eater.
An intensive adjectival description of quantity or habitual appetite, not merely the fact of eating.
- Lane · entry 6983
- Lane · entry 6988
- Mufradāt · row 46
أَكِيل
One who eats with another person.
A nominal description of a companion at a meal.
- Lane · entry 6984
أَكِيل
One who has been eaten; something eaten or made prey.
A passive lexical use, distinct from the active sense “one who eats.”
- Lane · entry 6984
- Lane · entry 6998
أَكُولَة
A sheep or goat set apart, fattened, and reserved to be eaten or slaughtered.
A livestock term for an animal selected for consumption rather than breeding or ordinary collection.
- Lane · entry 6985
أَكُولَة
A barren sheep or goat.
A specialized animal designation, apparently associated with its being suitable for eating.
- Lane · entry 6985
أَكِيلَة
A sheep or goat set as bait in a hunter's hiding place to catch a wolf or similar predator.
A specialized hunting term for an animal used as bait.
- Lane · entry 6987
أَكِيلَةُ سَبُعٍ
An animal partly eaten by a beast or bird of prey and then rescued.
The noun denotes prey that has already been attacked and consumed in part.
- Lane · entry 6987
أَكَلَةُ رَأْسٍ
A very small group, few enough for one head of food to satisfy them.
An idiomatic plural expression based on the amount of food required by the group.
- Lane · entry 6989
آكِلَة
Pasturing beasts or livestock that feed by grazing.
A nominal use referring to grazing animals collectively.
- Lane · entry 6989
آكِلَةُ اللَّحْمِ
A knife, pointed staff, fire, or whip that cuts or burns flesh or skin.
A metaphorical “flesh-eater” designation for implements or forces that cut or burn.
- Lane · entry 6989
الآكِل
A king or ruler, figuratively the one who consumes or controls others' resources.
A conventional political metaphor contrasted with the ruled as the consumed or subject party.
- Lane · entry 6989
آكِلُ الرِّبَا
The receiver or consumer of usury.
A fixed legal-religious expression for the party who takes usurious gain.
- Lane · entry 6989
آكَال
Grants, provisions, or stipends assigned by rulers, including soldiers' stipends.
A plural nominal use for allocated means of support or revenue.
- Lane · entry 6991
ذَوُو الآكَال
Tribal lords or chiefs entitled to take the traditional fourth share of spoil.
A historical social and political designation connected with chiefs' allotted share.
- Lane · entry 6991
مَأْكَل
Gain or profit.
A figurative nominal sense derived from what provides one's sustenance.
- Lane · entry 6992
مَأْكَل
A place or time of eating.
A place/time noun with the plural مآكل.
- Lane · entry 6992
مُؤْكَل
Fortunate, prosperous, or possessed of good fortune.
A specialized figurative adjectival use.
- Lane · entry 6993
مُؤْكِلُ الرِّبَا
The giver or payer of usury.
A fixed expression contrasting the giver with the receiver of usurious gain.
- Lane · entry 6994
مَأْكَلَة
Corn, food, or provisions brought or procured for oneself, one's family, or for sale.
A nominal provision sense, also used for an assigned source of food.
- Lane · entry 6995
مَأْكَلَة
Something edible or a thing designated to be eaten.
Can be used substantivally or adjectivally, including of an animal selected as food.
- Lane · entry 6995
مَأْكَلَة
A place from which one eats or obtains food.
The place noun can extend figuratively to a person treated as a source of sustenance.
- Lane · entry 6995
مَأْكَلَة
A person used as a source from whom one obtains food or support.
A figurative expression for treating someone as one's means of sustenance.
- Lane · entry 6995
مِئْكَلَة
A vessel or utensil from which food is eaten or in which it is cooked.
Includes specified bowls, a small cooking pot, and similar vessels.
- Lane · entry 6997
مِئْكَال
A spoon.
The utensil is named from eating with it.
- Lane · entry 6999
مَأْكُول
The subjects or ruled people of a king.
A figurative passive use contrasted with the king as the “eater.”
- Lane · entry 6998
مُؤَاكِل
One who takes and devours the possessions of other people.
A figurative nominal use for a predatory appropriator of property.
- Lane · entry 7000
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's historical Quran citation in the provision sense is not itself used as a modern verse coordinate; the example at 5:66 is included because that word location is independently supplied by QAC.
The active-participle and passive-participle public headwords are normalized singular citation forms, while the supplied Quran occurrences include plural or inflected forms.