Quranic root
ضيق
ḍ · y · q
The root centers on the opposite of spaciousness: narrowness, straitness, and restricted capacity, extending to material insufficiency, poverty, and mental distress.
Concrete restriction of space develops into constriction of the chest or mind, inability to cope, and straitened livelihood. Causative and derived forms express making something narrow, treating someone harshly, crowding, or specialized physical constriction.
- Maqāyīs · row 2978
- Mufradāt · row 887
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 13
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ضَاقَ
ḍāqa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To become narrow or straitened, especially of a place, expanse, or available space.
Used of physical space and, in Quranic contexts, of the earth becoming straitened around people. The constriction may be literal in description but expressive of distress in context.
- Lane · entry 18215
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:25word 16
“and (was) straitened”
Quran 9:118word 7
“(was) straitened”
To become mentally constricted, distressed, or unable to cope with something.
Includes constriction of the chest or mind and the construction ضَاقَ بِهِ ذَرْعًا, ‘to be unable to bear or cope with it’; ضاق به or ضاق عنه may express being overwhelmed or unable to accommodate something.
- Lane · entry 18215
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:118word 12
“And (was) straitened”
Quran 11:77word 7
“and felt straitened”
ضَيَّقَ
ḍayyaqa
- 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 make narrow or strait; to impose constriction or hardship on someone.
May concern a place or thing, or elliptically a person’s circumstances. In the Quranic construction, the straitening includes restricting expenses and creating emotional or psychological pressure.
- Lane · entry 18216
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 65:6word 9
“to distress”
ضَائِقٌ
ḍāʾiqun
- Part of speech
- 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.
Constricted or distressed, especially with one’s chest or mind made narrow by something.
The Quranic use is in the construction وَضَائِقٌ بِهِ صَدْرُكَ, describing a chest or mind straitened by a matter.
- Lane · entry 18230
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:12word 7
“and straitened”
ضَيْقٌ
ḍayqun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
Mental straitness: distress, unease, or doubt.
Used as a state of inward constriction; in the Quranic contexts it concerns unease or distress in response to hostile plotting or adversity.
- Lane · entry 18222
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:127word 12
“distress”
Quran 27:70word 7
“distress”
ضَيِّقٌ
ḍayyiqun
- Part of speech
- Adjective / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
Narrow, strait, or confined in physical space.
Describes a place or other spatial object whose extent or capacity is restricted.
- Lane · entry 18230
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:13word 5
“narrow”
Constricted or distressed, especially in the chest or mind.
A figurative use for inward constriction or distress, as in a chest made narrow and burdened by a matter.
- Lane · entry 18230
- Mufradāt · row 887
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:125word 15
“tight”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:125ضَيِّقًاtight
- 9:25وَضَاقَتْand (was) straitened
- 9:118ضَاقَتْ(was) straitened
- 9:118وَضَاقَتْAnd (was) straitened
- 11:12وَضَآئِقٌۢand straitened
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 14 Classical meanings
ضَاقَ
To become choked, surcharged, or overfilled with something, such as a watercourse with water or a place with people.
Often used with بِهِ for the thing causing the obstruction or overfilling.
- Lane · entry 18215
ضَاقَ
To become restricted or insufficient in livelihood, property, time, or other available means.
Includes a livelihood becoming strait and property proving inadequate for debts.
- Lane · entry 18215
ضَاقَ
To become niggardly or avaricious.
A figurative characterization of a person’s disposition or conduct.
- Lane · entry 18215
ضَايَقَ
To treat someone harshly or with hardness; to deal with someone oppressively in a matter.
An interpersonal Form III usage, also glossed as straitening someone.
- Lane · entry 18217
أَضَاقَ
For one’s means of living to become straitened, with loss of property and consequent poverty.
A Form IV usage concerning livelihood or financial resources.
- Lane · entry 18218
تَضَايَقَ
To crowd, press, or push against one another; to become cramped together.
Used reciprocally of people in an assembly or confined place; it may also describe becoming inwardly straitened in disposition.
- Lane · entry 18220
اِسْتَضَاقَ
To endeavor to constrict the vagina by means of a pessary or medicaments.
A specialized anatomical usage explicitly described of a woman.
- Lane · entry 18221
ضَيْقٌ
Narrowness or straitness of a thing, especially a thing that can properly become wider.
This is the concrete nominal state, distinguished in one lexical analysis from mental straitness.
- Lane · entry 18222
ضَيْقَةٌ
Poverty, hardship, or an evil state or condition.
A feminine nominal form used for material or general adversity.
- Lane · entry 18225
الضَّيْقَةُ
The name of a lunar mansion or pair of stars near the Pleiades and Aldebaran, regarded by the Arabs as inauspicious.
A specialized astronomical and proper-name usage, distinct from the ordinary noun for straitness.
- Lane · entry 18225
ضَيِّقٌ
Niggardly, avaricious, or narrow in disposition.
A figurative adjective describing a person’s liberality or temperament.
- Lane · entry 18230
مَضِيقٌ
A narrow or strait place or pass; also the vulva, and figuratively a straitened livelihood or difficult affair.
The anatomical, material, and figurative applications belong to this derived noun’s range of reference.
- Lane · entry 18232
مُضَيَّقٌ
An affair or matter rendered strait or restricted.
A passive-participial description of a matter made difficult or confined.
- Lane · entry 18233
مِضْيَاقٌ
A pessary made of rag and perfume, used to constrict the vagina.
A specialized implement noun associated with the anatomical use of اِسْتَضَاقَ.
- Lane · entry 18234
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Some inherited lexical citations use historical or uncertain Quran-numbering conventions; the Quran examples and locations here follow the supplied QAC locations rather than converting those citations.