Quranic root
ضيع
ḍ · y · ʿ
The root centers on a thing escaping, being lost, passing away, or perishing.
The basic intransitive idea of loss develops into causative waste and neglect, while related nouns describe abandoned dependents, livelihoods and property, places of ruin, and states of disorder. Some usages extend to the diffusion of scent.
- Maqāyīs · row 2976
- Mufradāt · row 885
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 10
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَضَاعَ
ʾaḍāʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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 cause something to be lost, perish, or be wasted; to let it go to waste.
Transitive Form IV. In the Quran this is used of works and recompense that God does not allow to perish or be wasted.
- Mufradāt · row 885
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:195word 6
“(let go) waste”
Quran 18:30word 8
“will not let go waste”
To neglect, omit, or leave unattended; to allow a duty or observance to be lost.
Transitive. In أَضَاعُوا الصَّلَاةَ it denotes neglecting or omitting prayer, with reported nuances of delaying it or performing it outside its proper time. In وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ, the cited interpretation understands إِيمَانَكُمْ as the prayer whose merit is not lost.
- Lane · entry 18173
- Mufradāt · row 885
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:59word 5
“who neglected”
Quran 2:143word 39
“let go waste”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:143لِيُضِيعَlet go waste
- 3:171يُضِيعُlet go waste
- 3:195أُضِيعُ(let go) waste
- 7:170نُضِيعُ[We] let go waste
- 9:120يُضِيعُallow to be lost
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 27 Classical meanings
ضَاعَ
To perish, come to nothing, pass away, or become lost.
Intransitive Form I, ordinarily said of a thing that is lost or perishes.
- Lane · entry 18171
ضَاعَ
To be left alone, untended, or neglected.
Intransitive; the usage is illustrated of camels and a household left without care.
- Lane · entry 18171
ضَاعَ
Of perfume or sweet odor, to diffuse its fragrance.
A usage with the aorist يَضُوعُ, treated as equivalent to the corresponding fragrance usage under ضوع.
- Lane · entry 18171
ضَيَّعَ
To cause something to perish or become lost; to destroy, waste, lose, or squander it.
Transitive Form II; it may be used of property and wealth, including squandering and extravagant expenditure.
- Lane · entry 18172
ضَيَّعَ
To break or fail to keep a compact, contract, or covenant.
Used with a covenant or other binding agreement as its object.
- Lane · entry 18172
ضَيَّعَ
In vulgar usage, to behead someone with a sword.
A specifically reported colloquial usage, not the ordinary Classical sense of the verb.
- Lane · entry 18172
أَضَاعَ
To find that one's affair is coming to nothing.
An intransitive Form IV usage distinct from the Quranic transitive uses.
- Lane · entry 18173
أَضَاعَ
Of one's estates, to become widespread and numerous.
Intransitive usage referring to property or estates becoming extensive or dispersed.
- Lane · entry 18173
تَضَيَّعَ
Of the wind, to blow.
The usage is explained in connection with the wind's destroying what it blows upon.
- Lane · entry 18174
تَضَيَّعَ
Of musk, to diffuse its odor or fragrance.
Reported as a dialectal variant or substitution for تَضَوَّعَ.
- Lane · entry 18174
ضَيْعَةٌ
A single instance or occasion of perishing, passing away, becoming lost, or being left neglected.
Also used in the expression تَرَكْتُهُ بِضَيْعَةٍ, 'I left him unsought-after, unminded, or unmissed.'
- Lane · entry 18176
ضَيْعَةٌ
An estate or revenue-producing property, especially land, houses, palm trees, or grapevines.
This sense is associated especially with towns, villages, and cultivated lands; the desert Arabs are reported not to use the word in this sense.
- Lane · entry 18176
ضَيْعَةٌ
A craft, occupation, habitual work, trade, or other means of earning a livelihood.
Includes such activities as farming, tending livestock or palms, handicrafts, and traffic or commerce.
- Lane · entry 18176
ضَيْعَةٌ
Property or affairs in a state of being spread out and disordered.
In the expression فَشَتْ ضَيْعَتُهُ, property may become too widespread to gather; the expression can also describe disordered affairs or taking up an irrelevant affair.
- Lane · entry 18176
ضَيْعَةٌ
A desert or waterless place cut off from inhabited regions, where a person may perish or become lost.
A reported nominal extension meaning a place that causes or exposes one to perdition.
- Lane · entry 18176
ضَيَاعٌ
Death while unsought-after, unminded, or unmissed.
Used in the construction مَاتَ ضَيَاعًا and its reported variants.
- Lane · entry 18178
ضَيَاعٌ
A dependent family or household left untended or liable to perish.
The usage particularly includes dependents unable to manage their own affairs, such as young children or incapacitated persons.
- Lane · entry 18178
ضَيَاعٌ
A kind of perfume or odoriferous substance.
A nominal lexical usage distinct from the verbal sense of losing or perishing.
- Lane · entry 18178
ضَائِعٌ
Perishing, passing away, becoming lost, or being left and neglected.
Active participle of ضاع, used adjectivally or substantivally.
- Lane · entry 18180
ضَائِعٌ
A man who is poor, unable to subsist, or burdened with a household to sustain.
A reported specialized description of a person's difficult circumstances.
- Lane · entry 18180
ضَائِعٌ
Hungry or empty, especially of the gut.
Used idiomatically in فُلَانٌ يَأْكُلُ فِي مِعًى ضَائِعٍ, 'he eats into an empty or hungry gut.'
- Lane · entry 18180
أَضْيَعُ
More perishing, more lost, or in a more ruinous state.
Comparative usage, as in comparing one person's condition with another's.
- Lane · entry 18181
مُضِيعٌ
One who causes something to be lost or wasted.
Active participle of the transitive Form IV verb أَضَاعَ.
- Lane · entry 18182
مُضِيعٌ
One whose estates are becoming widespread and numerous.
Active participle of the reported intransitive Form IV usage.
- Lane · entry 18182
مَضِيعَةٌ
A state or place of perishing, abandonment, or ruin.
In دَارُ مَضِيعَةٍ it may convey an abode of perdition, abandonment, ignominy, or indolence in one's affairs.
- Lane · entry 18183
مَضِيعَةٌ
A desert or other place that causes a person to perish or become lost.
A reported place-noun usage, also found with the variant مَضْيَعَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 18183
مِضْيَاعٌ
A person who wastes or squanders wealth or property.
An intensive nominal description, used with لِلْمَالِ, 'with respect to wealth.'
- Lane · entry 18185
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form is normalized under the perfect Form IV citation form أَضَاعَ, although most supplied Quran occurrences are imperfect forms.
In the explanation of وَمَا كَانَ اللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَانَكُمْ, the cited interpretation understands إِيمَانَكُمْ as prayer in its contextual setting.
The estate/property sense of ضَيْعَةٌ is reported with a qualification about its being a later or innovative usage; it is therefore kept as broader Classical coverage rather than as the root's core principle.