Quranic root
أرض
ʾ · r · ḍ
The central orientation is the earth or ground: what is below and opposite the sky, including the terrestrial surface and what rests upon it.
From this basic notion, the lexicon develops descriptions of fertile, soft, productive land, lower parts, remaining fixed to the ground, and figurative submissiveness. Rheum and tremor are reported as separate, non-analogical lexical branches.
- Maqāyīs · row 67
- Mufradāt · row 27
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 461
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَرْضٌ
ʾarḍun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 461 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.
The earth, ground, or land; the terrestrial expanse or a tract of country.
The noun may refer to the earth as opposed to heaven, to its surface or soil, or to an inhabited or cultivated land. In the expression “the earth after its death,” the physical image is extended to renewal after corruption and return after an initial state; it is also interpreted figuratively as the softening of hearts after hardness.
- Lane · entry 6526
- Mufradāt · row 27
Selected Quran examples
In دَابَّةُ الأَرْضِ, the earth-creature, identified in this Quranic attestation as a wood-eating insect.
This is a conventional Quranic expression; the identification of the creature as the insect that consumed Solomon’s staff belongs to the lexical explanation of the expression, not to a general standalone meaning of أرض.
- Lane · entry 6530
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:14word 11
“(of) the earth”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:11ٱلْأَرْضِthe earth
- 2:22ٱلْأَرْضَthe earth
- 2:27ٱلْأَرْضِ ۚthe earth
- 2:29ٱلْأَرْضِthe earth
- 2:30ٱلْأَرْضِthe earth
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 37 Classical meanings
أَرُضَ
Of land: to become thriving, fertile, productive, soft, moisture-retaining, and rich in herbage.
A Form I verbal use describing the condition of land or pasture.
- Lane · entry 6521
أَرُضَ
Of a person: to become lowly or submissive and naturally disposed to good.
A figurative Form I use applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 6521
أَرَضَ
To find land abundant in herbage or pasture.
A Form I transitive use with the land as the object of finding or judging.
- Lane · entry 6521
أُرِضَ
Of wood: to be eaten by the wood-fretter or termite.
A passive verbal construction describing damage caused by أَرَضَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 6521
أَرِضَ
Of an ulcer or sore: to become blistered, widened, corrupt with thick matter, and split open.
A Form I verbal use for a deteriorating sore.
- Lane · entry 6521
أُرِضَ / أَرِضَ
To be affected by rheum or a cold.
Two reported vocalizations occur in this verbal use.
- Lane · entry 6521
أَرَّضَ
To graze the herbage of the earth and seek after it.
A Form II use; the related verbal noun may describe grazing or searching for pasture.
- Lane · entry 6522
أَرَّضَ
To seek out or choose a place for alighting or abiding.
A conventional use with a place of lodging or settlement as the object.
- Lane · entry 6522
أَرَّضَ
To make heavy, slow, or sluggish.
A reported Form II causative use.
- Lane · entry 6522
أَرَّضَ
To make someone tarry, wait, or remain patient in expectation.
A reported extension of the Form II use.
- Lane · entry 6522
آرَضَ
Of a place or land: to be abundant in herbage, level or soft, productive, and good.
A Form IV use, often appearing in an exclamation about the quality of a place or land.
- Lane · entry 6523
آرَضَ
To cause someone to be affected by rheum.
A Form IV causative use.
- Lane · entry 6523
تَأَرَّضَ
Of herbage: to reach a state in which it can be cut.
A Form V use describing mature or harvestable vegetation.
- Lane · entry 6524
تَأَرَّضَ
To cling to the ground, remain fixed in a place, or tarry there in expectation.
The construction may describe staying at a place without leaving, waiting, or pausing.
- Lane · entry 6524
تَأَرَّضَ
To become heavy, slow, or sluggish, inclining toward the ground.
A Form V bodily or behavioral description.
- Lane · entry 6524
يَتَأَرَّضُ
To approach someone asking or petitioning for something desired.
A fixed idiomatic use, synonymous with presenting oneself or humbly supplicating.
- Lane · entry 6524
اِسْتَأْرَضَ
Of clouds: to expand or spread, or according to another report, to become fixed or stationary.
A Form X use applied to clouds.
- Lane · entry 6525
أَرْضٌ
Ground-like submissiveness, endurance, or lack of resistance.
A figurative idiom compares a submissive or uncomplaining person to ground.
- Lane · entry 6526
ابْنُ أَرْضٍ
A stranger whose father and mother are unknown.
A fixed compound expression.
- Lane · entry 6526
ابْنُ الأَرْضِ
A low-growing plant found on hilltops, eaten as a herb and quick to dry.
A specialized plant name in the compound ابن الأرض; related plural expressions may denote plants.
- Lane · entry 6526
بَنَاتُ الأَرْضِ
In compound expressions, concealed places, pools left by torrents, pools retaining water, or rivulets.
These are specialized compound uses rather than a general standalone sense of أرض.
- Lane · entry 6526
أَرْضٌ
A carpet or anything spread out.
A figurative use; in poetry this usage may be treated grammatically as masculine.
- Lane · entry 6526
أَرْضٌ
Anything low or the lower part next to the ground, including the lower legs of an animal, a man’s knees and what lies below them, or the underside of a sandal.
The specific application depends on the object: animal legs, a person’s lower limbs, or the part of a sole touching the ground.
- Lane · entry 6526
أَرْضٌ
A febrile shivering, tremor, or vertigo.
This is a separate lexical branch from أرض meaning earth; the tremor may be associated with a relaxed state and discharge from the nose and eyes.
- Lane · entry 6526
أَرْضٌ
Rheum or a cold.
This nominal use is masculine in the cited report and is distinct from the earth noun in meaning.
- Lane · entry 6526
أَهْلُ الأَرْضِ
A class of jinn believed to possess people and cause involuntary trembling or movement.
A specialized compound expression associated with the tremor sense.
- Lane · entry 6526
إِرْضَةٌ
Herbage sufficient for camels or other grazing animals for a year; abundant pasture.
A specialized pasture noun.
- Lane · entry 6529
أَرَضَةٌ
The wood-fretter or termite, an insect that eats wood and may damage plants.
The noun can be collective in use; the insect is described as a white worm or winged termite in different reports.
- Lane · entry 6530
- Lane · entry 6537
أَرِيضٌ / أَرِيضَةٌ
Of land: fertile, productive, pleasing, soft or level, moisture-retaining, and rich in vegetation; also, broadly, wide.
An adjectival branch describing the quality or breadth of land.
- Lane · entry 6534
أَرِيضٌ
Wide or fat as an epithet, including a broad or fat person or animal.
The form may occur as an imitative counterpart of عريض and can describe a kid or a woman; the examples do not impose an object-class restriction.
- Lane · entry 6534
أَرِيضٌ
Lowly, submissive, or naturally disposed to good.
An adjectival use applied to a person or character.
- Lane · entry 6534
هُوَ أَرْضُهُمْ بِهِ
The most adapted, suitable, fit, or worthy among them for a thing or action.
A fixed superlative-like expression with a following object or action.
- Lane · entry 6535
مَأْرُوضٌ
Wood eaten by the wood-fretter or termite.
A passive participial description of wood damaged by the insect.
- Lane · entry 6537
مَأْرُوضٌ
A person affected by a disorder attributed to jinn and moving the head or body involuntarily.
A specialized passive participle associated with the tremor or possession branch.
- Lane · entry 6537
مَأْرُوضٌ
A person affected by rheum or a cold.
A specialized passive participial use; the reported morphology varies in relation to the causative verb.
- Lane · entry 6537
مُسْتَأْرِضٌ
Of a young palm: having established a root in the ground.
A Form X participial use for a young palm or offshoot rooted in the soil.
- Lane · entry 6538
مُسْتَأْرِضٌ
Heavy, slow, or sluggish, inclining toward the ground.
A specialized adjectival or participial use.
- Lane · entry 6538
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's historical Quran citation for دَابَّةُ الأَرْضِ is not converted into a modern verse number; the example uses the independently supplied QAC location 34:14:11.
The Quranic form is a single noun group with 461 occurrences; case, definiteness, attached pronouns, and conjunctions are not separate lexical forms.