Quranic root
ضيف
ḍ · y · f
The root centers on inclination or turning toward something, including approach, attachment, and adjacency.
From inclination developed the senses of approaching or alighting as a guest, making something lean toward another, and being joined or situated at a side. Related extensions include enclosure, refuge, and hospitality.
- Maqāyīs · row 2977
- Mufradāt · row 886
- Lane · entry 18186
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- 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.
ضَيَّفَ
ḍayyafa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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.
To receive, lodge, or entertain someone as a guest; to offer hospitality.
A transitive hospitality construction, with the person received or entertained as its object.
- Lane · entry 18189
- Lane · entry 18187
- Mufradāt · row 886
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:77word 11
“offer them hospitality”
ضَيْف
ḍayf
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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.
A guest or guests; one who is received or lodged by another.
Because the noun originated as a verbal noun, it can refer to one guest or a group of guests, and to either sex.
- Lane · entry 18194
- Mufradāt · row 886
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 11:78ضَيْفِىٓ ۖmy guests
- 15:51ضَيْفِ(the) guests
- 15:68ضَيْفِى(are) my guests
- 18:77يُضَيِّفُوهُمَاoffer them hospitality
- 51:24ضَيْفِ(of the) guests
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 43 Classical meanings
ضَافَ
To incline toward or approach; of the sun, to incline toward setting.
The approach sense may be used of a person, thing, or the sun.
- Lane · entry 18186
ضَافَ
Of a woman, to menstruate.
A reported lexical usage explained metaphorically as a transition away from purity; this interpretation is disputed.
- Lane · entry 18186
ضَافَ
To turn aside from something; of an arrow, to miss or turn away from the target.
The construction may take عَنْ with the thing from which one turns away.
- Lane · entry 18186
ضَافَ
To fear or be cautious of an event or affair.
A figurative extension associated with being encompassed or beset by what one fears.
- Lane · entry 18186
ضِفْتُهُ
To alight at someone's abode as a guest, become his guest, or seek entertainment from him as a guest.
The guest may be the subject who comes to another's dwelling; the same form can express seeking guest entertainment.
- Lane · entry 18186
ضَافَهُ الهَمُّ
Of anxiety, to befall or descend upon someone.
A figurative use in which anxiety is treated as approaching or alighting upon its sufferer.
- Lane · entry 18186
ضَيَّفَ
To protect or defend someone, making him safe or free from fear.
A figurative Form II usage, distinct from receiving someone as a guest.
- Lane · entry 18187
ضَايَفَهُ
To straiten or distress someone; of anxiety, to befall him.
The lexical explanation is reported tentatively in the source.
- Lane · entry 18188
ضَايَفَهُ
Possibly, to become someone's guest.
An alternative, explicitly uncertain interpretation of the Form III entry.
- Lane · entry 18188
ضَايَفَ
To be reciprocal or correlative with something else.
Used of relations in which one term or entity is understood in connection with another.
- Lane · entry 18188
أَضَافَ
To run, hasten, or flee; of a dog, to run away.
A reported lexical usage of the Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 18189
أَضَافَ عَلَى الشَّيْءِ
To look upon something from above, or to be on its brink, verge, or point.
The prepositional construction عَلَى الشَّيْءِ is part of this usage.
- Lane · entry 18189
تُضِيفُ إِلَى صَوْتِ الفَحْلِ
Of a she-camel, to hear the stallion's voice with desire to go to him.
A specialized usage describing a she-camel's responsive inclination toward the stallion.
- Lane · entry 18189
الإِضَافَةُ
Reciprocal or correlative relation; in particular, the relation of terms whose existence implies one another.
Examples include fathership and sonship, or other correlative nouns.
- Lane · entry 18189
- Lane · entry 18212
أَضَافَ إِلَيْهِ
To make something lean, rest, or stay against another thing; figuratively, to place an affair in someone's charge.
The construction expresses physical support or the entrusting of a matter to someone.
- Lane · entry 18189
أَضَافَ إِلَيْهِ
To cause someone to have recourse to something or to take refuge in it.
This is the causative refuge sense of the Form IV construction.
- Lane · entry 18189
أَضَافَ
To adjoin one thing to another.
A general joining or attachment use, distinct from the grammatical technical term.
- Lane · entry 18189
بِالإِضَافَةِ إِلَى
In comparison with, or in relation to, something.
A conventional prepositional phrase meaning literally 'by addition to' or 'in juxtaposition to'.
- Lane · entry 18189
أَضَافَ
To make someone a guest, lodge him, give him refuge or asylum, and entertain him.
A transitive hospitality usage of the Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 18189
تَضَيَّفَ
To be collected together.
A reported lexical noun-form usage.
- Lane · entry 18190
تَضَيَّفَ
To be a follower or one who follows.
A specialized reported usage, distinct from merely approaching as a guest.
- Lane · entry 18190
تَضَايَفَ
Of a valley, to become narrow.
A specialized Form VI usage related to the notion of sides or constriction.
- Lane · entry 18191
تَضَايَفَ
To come from both sides, surround, or hem someone or something in.
Used of people, beasts, dogs, or other parties approaching from the sides.
- Lane · entry 18191
اِنْضَافَ إِلَيْهِ
To become joined, adjoined, or added to something; to join oneself to someone.
The source characterizes this usage as possibly postclassical.
- Lane · entry 18192
اِسْتَضَافَ
To ask someone to grant protection or refuge; to have recourse to someone for protection.
The Form X construction may express either requesting protection or taking refuge.
- Lane · entry 18193
ضَيْفَةٌ
A menstruating woman.
A rare and disputed usage of the feminine noun, reported by one authority in connection with a poetic citation.
- Lane · entry 18194
ضِيفٌ
A side or flank, especially the side of a valley or mountain; by extension, the vicinity or quarter of someone.
The plural ضِيفَانِ can refer to the two sides of a valley or another location.
- Lane · entry 18195
ضَيْفَنٌ
One who comes along with a guest, especially an uninvited intruder or follower of a guest.
The plural is ضَيَافِنُ.
- Lane · entry 18196
ضِيَافَةٌ
Hospitality or the act of entertaining guests; also a meal, banquet, or feast provided for them.
A verbal noun and substantive noun for receiving and entertaining guests.
- Lane · entry 18197
ضَائِفٌ
A person alighting as a guest.
An active participle closely associated with the guest-arrival sense of ضَافَ.
- Lane · entry 18198
مُضَافٌ
An adjunct or adherent attached to a people or group without actually belonging to them.
A figurative passive-participial usage describing attachment without membership.
- Lane · entry 18199
مُضَافٌ
One whose origin or lineage is suspected, or who claims a relationship he does not possess.
The term may also describe someone whose origin is attributed to a group of which he is not a member.
- Lane · entry 18199
مُضَافٌ
One constrained to take refuge, especially someone in fear or burdened by distress.
The sense includes a person driven to a confined place of refuge and calling for protection.
- Lane · entry 18199
مُضَافٌ
One beset, hemmed in, or surrounded in war or battle; a person lacking strength among combatants.
A specialized military and figurative usage.
- Lane · entry 18199
مَضُوفٌ
One beset by distress of mind or constrained to seek refuge.
The term is attested in poetic language for a person calling for aid.
- Lane · entry 18200
مَضِيفٌ
Turning aside or crooked.
A dialectal or variant form; the source also reports it as a reading or equivalent of ضَائِفٌ in a poetic context.
- Lane · entry 18201
مُضِيفٌ
Fleeing or turning away and fleeing.
An active participle associated with the corresponding Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 18202
مُضَافَةٌ
Hardship, difficulty, or distress.
A feminine noun usage distinct from the grammatical term الإضافة.
- Lane · entry 18203
مَضْيَفَةٌ
A place for receiving or entertaining guests.
A place noun; its plural is مَضَايِفُ.
- Lane · entry 18206
مُضَيِّفٌ
The master of an abode in which guests are entertained.
A person associated with the management or hosting of a guest-house or lodging place.
- Lane · entry 18208
مِضْيَافٌ
One who frequently entertains guests.
An intensive nominal form describing habitual hospitality.
- Lane · entry 18209
مُسْتَضِيفٌ
One asking or calling for aid or succour.
The active participle of the Form X refuge-seeking usage.
- Lane · entry 18214
مَضُوفَةٌ
Anxiety, grief, want, or an affair that is feared or guarded against.
A rare and variant feminine form with several reported lexical explanations.
- Lane · entry 18204
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The reported menstruation senses of ضَافَ and ضَيْفَةٌ are disputed; the Quran-focused lexical discussion rejects that derivation, so they are retained only as broader reported Classical usages.
The Form III entry ضَايَفَهُ gives straitening as an apparent meaning but also tentatively suggests becoming a guest; both alternatives are marked as reported rather than certain.
The Form VII usage اِنْضَافَ إِلَيْهِ is explicitly described as possibly postclassical.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The Form III alternatives in lane-unit:Dyf:18188:g1:main cannot be resolved from the packet: straitening is reported alongside the possibility of becoming a guest, so both are preserved with conditional usage notes.
The variant report for مَضِيفٌ in lane-unit:Dyf:18201:g1:main is retained as a dialectal or textual alternative rather than treated as an unqualified standard headword.