Quranic root
علم
ʿ · l · m
A distinguishing mark or trace by which something is recognized; from this develop knowing, making known, signs and landmarks, and the worlds as distinguishable classes of creation.
The root moves from a mark that identifies a thing to recognition and knowledge, then to teaching or making knowledge available. Its world-sense reflects classes of creation understood as signs of their Maker.
- Maqāyīs · row 3299
- Mufradāt · row 1004
- 13
- Quran-attested forms
- 18
- Quran senses
- 854
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
- عَلِمَVerb · Form I I · 382
- عَلَّمَVerb · Form II II · 41
- تَعَلَّمَVerb · Form V V · 2
- عَلَمNoun · 2
- أَعْلَمAdjective / Noun · 49
- عَالَمNoun · 73
- عَالِمActive participle · 18
- عَلَامَةNoun · 1
- عَلِيمAdjective / Noun · 163
- عَلَّامAdjective / Noun · 4
- عِلْمNoun · 105
- مُعَلَّمPassive participle · 1
- مَعْلُومPassive participle / Adjective · 13
عَلِمَ
ʿalima
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 382 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 know, recognize, or be acquainted with something.
Normally takes one object; the Quran also uses it for knowing or recognizing persons and things, including knowledge acquired or realized in a situation.
- Lane · entry 4558
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:60word 19
“(do) you know them”
To know or judge that something is or is not the case; to ascertain something with certainty.
May take two objective complements, especially in constructions equivalent to “know someone to be …”; grammatical aspect, voice, and subject do not create separate lexical senses.
- Lane · entry 4558
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 60:10word 13
“you know them”
عَلَّمَ
ʿallama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 41 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 teach, instruct, or impart knowledge to someone.
Typically takes a learner and the knowledge, text, skill, or matter taught; repeated or sustained instruction may be emphasized, but the active and passive forms belong to the same lexical sense.
- Lane · entry 4559
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:31word 1
“And He taught”
Quran 5:4word 14
“you teach them”
تَعَلَّمَ
taʿallama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- 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.
To learn or acquire knowledge.
The form may be used transitively or intransitively; it presents knowledge as acquired by the learner rather than imparted by a teacher.
- Lane · entry 4562
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:102word 35
“But they learn”
Quran 2:102word 52
“And they learn”
عَلَم
ʿalam
- 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.
A distinguishing mark, landmark, or prominent mountain used as a sign.
The Quranic plural أَعْلَام refers to large, conspicuous mountain-like landmarks in the sea; the lexical branch also covers markers and signs by which places or things are recognized.
- Lane · entry 4568
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 42:32word 6
“like [the] mountains”
Quran 55:24word 6
“like mountains”
أَعْلَم
ʾaʿlam
- Part of speech
- Adjective / Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 49 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.
More knowing, most knowing, or knowing best.
Used comparatively or superlatively; in expressions concerning God, the context may mean that God knows best or simply that God knows.
- Lane · entry 4588
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:125word 15
“(is) most knowing”
Quran 11:31word 24
“knows best”
عَالَم
ʿālam
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 73 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 world, realm, or class of created beings; collectively, the worlds or creation.
The Quranic plural عَالَمِينَ denotes the created worlds or classes of creation. Classical interpretation varies over whether it emphasizes all creatures, intelligent creatures, or distinct kinds such as humans, jinn, and angels.
- Lane · entry 4584
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 1:2word 4
“of the universe”
Quran 21:107word 5
“for the worlds”
عَالِم
ʿālim
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 18 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 knower or learned person, one possessing knowledge.
Applied to human beings or other knowers; the Quranic plural may refer to learned people or knowers.
- Lane · entry 4585
Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:43word 8
“those of knowledge”
The Knower, whose knowledge leaves nothing hidden.
When used as a divine description, it denotes comprehensive knowledge rather than an acquired human state.
- Lane · entry 4585
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:73word 19
“(He is) All-Knower”
عَلَامَة
ʿalāmah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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 sign, mark, token, or indication by which something is recognized.
The Quranic plural عَلَامَات refers to visible signs or landmarks used for orientation; the sense is not restricted to any particular object class.
- Lane · entry 4578
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:16word 1
“And landmarks”
عَلِيم
ʿalīm
- Part of speech
- Adjective / Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 163 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.
Very knowing, learned, or possessing knowledge to a high degree.
Can describe a human being as learned or knowledgeable; the Quranic group also contains the plural عُلَمَاء, “scholars.”
- Lane · entry 4585
- Lane · entry 4577
All-knowing or omniscient.
As a divine epithet, it denotes knowledge of what has been and will be, encompassing what is hidden and manifest, small and great.
- Lane · entry 4577
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:36word 15
“(is) All-Knower”
Scholars or learned people.
This sense is represented by the Quranic plural form عُلَمَاء within the supplied QAC grouping; it denotes people distinguished by knowledge.
- Lane · entry 4585
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:197word 7
“(the) scholars”
عَلَّام
ʿallām
- Part of speech
- Adjective / 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.
Supremely knowing; all-knowing, especially of hidden matters.
An intensive description used in the Quran for comprehensive divine knowledge, including knowledge of the unseen; it is not merely a grammatical intensifier in these contexts.
- Lane · entry 4580
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:109word 14
“(are the) Knower”
Quran 34:48word 6
“(the) All-Knower”
عِلْم
ʿilm
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 105 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.
Knowledge, understanding, or awareness of a thing as it truly is.
May be theoretical or practical, rational or received, and may concern ordinary or specially granted knowledge; the noun is the opposite of ignorance.
- Lane · entry 4567
- Mufradāt · row 1004
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:65word 12
“a knowledge”
Knowledge understood as action according to what is known.
Reported for the Quranic context of 12:68; the primary sense “knowledge” remains the more direct interpretation there.
- Lane · entry 4567
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:68word 23
“(of) knowledge”
مُعَلَّم
muʿallam
- 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.
Taught or instructed; one who has been taught.
The Quranic form is a passive participle of عَلَّمَ; the identity of the teacher or the subject taught is supplied by context.
- Lane · entry 4594
Selected Quran examples
Quran 44:14word 5
“One taught”
مَعْلُوم
maʿlūm
- Part of speech
- Passive participle / Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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.
Known, specified, fixed, or appointed.
The Quranic plural مَعْلُومَات is used of specified or appointed times or days; مَعْلُوم may also describe a fixed term, portion, or determinate matter.
- Lane · entry 4596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:21word 11
“known”
Quran 37:41word 4
“determined”
Quran 2:197word 3
“well known”
Quran 22:28word 9
“known”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 1:2ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَof the universe
- 2:13يَعْلَمُونَthey know
- 2:22تَعْلَمُونَ[you] know
- 2:26فَيَعْلَمُونَ[thus] they will know
- 2:29عَلِيمٌۭ(is) All-Knowing
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 44 Classical meanings
عَلُمَ
To possess knowledge as a firmly rooted faculty; to be learned.
An intransitive stative use distinct from the ordinary transitive verb عَلِمَ.
- Lane · entry 4558
عَلِمَ
To try, test, or prove someone and thereby ascertain his condition or qualities.
Found in the expression عَلِمْتُ عِلْمَهُ.
- Lane · entry 4558
عَلِمَ
To use عَلِمَ as a verb of swearing or asseveration.
It can introduce a similarly complemented assertion; يَعْلَمُ اللهُ is likewise used as an asseverative formula.
- Lane · entry 4558
عَالَمَ
To compete with someone in knowledge and surpass him in it.
A Form III verbal construction concerning rivalry in knowledge.
- Lane · entry 4560
عَلَمَ
To mark, brand, or place a distinguishing sign on something.
Includes marking a garment, book, object, or person; the mark may identify or distinguish the marked thing.
- Lane · entry 4558
- Lane · entry 4561
عَلَمَ
To slit the upper lip.
A bodily action distinct from the knowledge and marking branches.
- Lane · entry 4558
أَعْلَم
Having a fissure or cleft in the upper lip.
Applied to a person or camel; the fissure may be in the lip generally or on one side.
- Lane · entry 4558
- Lane · entry 4588
أَعْلَمَ
To give a garment, book, horse, grave, or person a mark, border, badge, or identifying sign.
Includes decorative or embroidered borders, a mark placed on writing, a war badge, and a tombstone used as a marker.
- Lane · entry 4561
أَعْلَمَ
For a well-digger, to find that the well contains abundant water.
A specialized occupational use.
- Lane · entry 4561
اِعْتَلَمَ
For water, to flow over the ground.
A specialized use of the Form VIII verb.
- Lane · entry 4564
اِعْتَلَمَ
For lightning, to shine or gleam.
Attested in a poetic expression concerning lightning seen on or near a mountain.
- Lane · entry 4564
اِسْتَعْلَمَ
To ask or desire someone to tell or inform one about something.
Typically used with news or information as the requested object.
- Lane · entry 4565
عِلْم
A predominant or preponderant opinion.
A secondary use in which strong belief stands in place of fully established knowledge.
- Lane · entry 4567
عِلْم
The first thing, or before everything else.
Found in the idiom لَقِيتُهُ أَدْنَى عِلْمٍ.
- Lane · entry 4567
عَلَم
An impression, footprint, track, or trace.
The identifying trace left by a person or thing.
- Lane · entry 4568
عَلَم
The ornamental, figured, variegated, or embroidered border of a garment or cloth.
A textile sense; its plural is أَعْلَام.
- Lane · entry 4568
عَلَم
A waymark or erected object used to guide travelers.
May be a structure, sign, or other prominent object in a road or desert.
- Lane · entry 4568
عَلَم
A boundary or separation between two lands.
Includes marked limits such as the boundaries of a sacred territory.
- Lane · entry 4568
عَلَم
A banner or military standard around which soldiers gather.
May also refer to a strip of cloth tied to a spear.
- Lane · entry 4568
عَلَم
A chief or prominent leader of a people or group.
A figurative extension from a mountain or banner as a conspicuous marker.
- Lane · entry 4568
عُلْمَة
A fissure in the upper lip or in one side of it.
An anatomical noun corresponding to the harelipped branch.
- Lane · entry 4569
عِلْمِيّ
Related to knowledge or science; scientific or theoretical.
Contrasted with عَمَلِيّ, practical or action-oriented.
- Lane · entry 4573
عُلَام
A variant pronunciation or substitution for غُلَام, a boy or youth.
A reported consonant substitution rather than a knowledge-derived meaning.
- Lane · entry 4576
عَلَامَة
A mark, sign, token, characteristic, symptom, or indication by which a person or thing is known.
The noun may denote either a concrete badge or a distinguishing feature.
- Lane · entry 4578
عُلَامِيّ
Light, active, sharp, or acute-minded.
Applied to a man; this is a separate lexical item from the intensive adjective عَلَّام.
- Lane · entry 4579
عَلَّام
A very skilled genealogist or person possessing exceptional knowledge of genealogies.
An intensive human specialization of the knowledge branch.
- Lane · entry 4580
عُلَّام
A hawk, especially a sparrow-hawk or goshawk.
A homonymous lexical branch with its own animal sense.
- Lane · entry 4581
عُلَّام
Henna, the plant used for dyeing.
The marking sense is understood through the use of henna as a coloring mark.
- Lane · entry 4581
عُلَّام
The kernel of the stone of the lote fruit.
A specialized botanical sense.
- Lane · entry 4581
عَالَم
A generation or the people of one period.
A secondary nominal use equivalent to قَرْن.
- Lane · entry 4584
عَيْلَم
A well or body of abundant water, including the sea or water concealed beneath the earth.
The term may denote a deep, broad, salty, copious, or subterranean body of water.
- Lane · entry 4586
عَيْلَم
A large cooking pot.
A specialized object noun.
- Lane · entry 4586
عَيْلَم
Plump and soft, tender, or delicate.
An adjectival use.
- Lane · entry 4586
عَيْلَم
A frog.
A reported animal sense.
- Lane · entry 4586
عَيْلَم
A male hyena, described as large-bellied or swollen at the sides.
A rare animal description preserved as an independent lexical use.
- Lane · entry 4586
عَلْمَاء
A coat of mail.
A rare, verse-attested noun distinct from the feminine of أَعْلَم.
- Lane · entry 4588
مَعْلَم
A place or object where the existence of something is known or can be recognized.
The noun may describe a person known to possess a quality, as well as a place that reveals or indicates something.
- Lane · entry 4591
مَعْلَم
A sign, trace, or indicator by which one finds or is guided to a road.
Includes a road marker and an indication associated with an approaching event; the latter Quran citation is not assigned to a modern location here.
- Lane · entry 4591
مَعْلَم
An indication or symptom of something.
A figurative extension of the guiding-sign sense.
- Lane · entry 4591
مُعْلَم
Marked or bearing a mark, as a garment, cloth, or gaming arrow.
Passive participle of أَعْلَمَ in its marking sense.
- Lane · entry 4592
مُعْلِم
One who marks or gives a sign, including one who displays a badge or sign of war.
Active participle of أَعْلَمَ; includes marking a garment and distinguishing oneself in battle.
- Lane · entry 4593
مُعَلَّم
Directed by inspiration toward what is right and good.
A specialized passive-participial use beyond the ordinary meaning “taught.”
- Lane · entry 4594
مُعَلِّم
A teacher or instructor.
The ordinary agent noun of عَلَّمَ.
- Lane · entry 4595
مُعَلِّم
A title of address for a Christian or a Jew.
A later conventional title, distinct from the general occupational sense “teacher.”
- Lane · entry 4595
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC group for عَلِيم also contains the plural عُلَمَاء; that materially distinct plural usage is represented as a separate numbered sense under the normalized عَلِيم entry.
Some English renderings of Form I عَلِمَ, especially “make evident,” reflect contextual or interpretive readings of knowledge becoming manifest; they have not been promoted to a separate lexical sense without independent lexical evidence.
Lane's historical Quran citations have been used only as lexical evidence; no unverified modern verse location has been assigned to them.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The packet integrity metadata reports 96 Lane primary source units, while 94 distinct source_unit objects are visibly enumerated in the supplied Lane entries. All visibly supplied unit_id values have been included in the coverage ledger; no additional unit_id was invented.