Quranic root
عمي
ʿ · m · y
A root oriented toward covering, concealing, or preventing clear perception.
The basic notion of covering develops into loss of physical sight, inward blindness or deviation from guidance, and the obscuring of information or meaning. Related Classical uses extend the covering image to clouds, darkness, foam, and trackless terrain.
- Maqāyīs · row 3317
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 33
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَمِيَ
ʿamiya
- 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 be or become blind, losing physical sight.
Used as a Form I verb of becoming or being blind; Quranic usage can concern sight or perception more generally.
- Lane · entry 4842
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:104word 10
“(is) blind”
To be blind to guidance, truth, or the right course; to err through lack of inward perception.
A figurative use concerning the mind or heart rather than the eyes, including failure to recognize the right way.
- Lane · entry 4842
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:46word 16
“(are) blinded”
To become obscure or unintelligible to someone.
Especially in the construction عَمِيَ عَلَيْهِ, with information, affairs, speech, or pleas becoming unapparent or doubtful to the person concerned.
- Lane · entry 4842
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:66word 1
“But (will) be obscure”
عَمَّى
ʿammā
- 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 be made obscure or unintelligible to someone.
The Quranic occurrence is passive and occurs in the construction عُمِّيَتْ عَلَيْكُمْ, describing something made unapparent or unclear to its hearers.
- Lane · entry 4843
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:28word 14
“but (it) has been obscured”
أَعْمَى
ʾaʿmā
- Part of speech
- Adjective / substantivized noun
- Quran occurrences
- 23 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.
Blind; lacking physical sight, also used substantively for a blind person or the blind.
The form functions adjectivally and substantively; Quranic occurrences include singular and plural forms.
- Lane · entry 4867
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 80:2word 3
“the blind man”
Blind in mind or heart; unable to perceive guidance or the way to safety.
A figurative Quranic use concerning inward perception and guidance, including the contrast between blindness and seeing.
- Lane · entry 4867
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:72word 5
“blind”
Quran 7:64word 14
“blind”
عَمًى
ʿaman
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Blindness; loss of physical sight or inward perception.
A verbal noun of عَمِيَ; Quranic usage permits physical or figurative blindness according to context.
- Lane · entry 4851
- Mufradāt · row 1012
Selected Quran examples
Quran 41:17word 5
“[the] blindness”
Quran 41:44word 25
“blindness”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:18عُمْىٌۭblind
- 2:171عُمْىٌۭ(and) blind
- 5:71فَعَمُوا۟so they became blind
- 5:71عَمُوا۟they became blind
- 6:50ٱلْأَعْمَىٰthe blind
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 36 Classical meanings
عَمِيَ إِلَى
To betake oneself or direct oneself toward something, without desiring another.
A figurative construction with إِلَى.
- Lane · entry 4842
عَمَى
Of waves, to cast particles, rubbish, or foam onto their upper parts; of a camel, to cast mouth-foam onto its head.
A specialized physical use describing the upward casting or covering action of waves and a braying camel.
- Lane · entry 4842
عَمَانِي بِـ
To cast upon someone a suspicion of something.
An idiomatic causative-looking construction with بِـ.
- Lane · entry 4842
عَمَى
Of water or another substance, to flow.
A distinct intransitive use, also compared with هَمَى.
- Lane · entry 4842
عَمَى
Of vegetation, to reach full height, blossom, and become luxuriant or dense.
A dialectal or specialized use applied to plants or herbage.
- Lane · entry 4842
عَمَّى
To render someone physically blind.
A Form II causative use, explicitly including blindness of both eyes in the cited definition.
- Lane · entry 4843
أَعْمَى
To find someone to be blind.
A Form IV use distinct from the Form II causative, with the object judged or discovered to be blind.
- Lane · entry 4844
تَعَامَى
To feign blindness or pretend not to know something.
May concern physical sight or, figuratively, feigned ignorance of a matter.
- Lane · entry 4846
اِعْتَمَى
To choose, select, or prefer something.
A lexical use explicitly equated with اِخْتَارَ.
- Lane · entry 4847
اِعْتَمَى
To tend, betake oneself, or direct one's aim toward someone or something.
A related but distinct use explicitly equated with قَصَدَ.
- Lane · entry 4847
عَمًى
Blindly or without insight, especially in undertaking an affair.
Occurs in the idiom رَكِبَ أَمْرًا عَلَى العَمَى, meaning to embark on a matter without clear knowledge or guidance.
- Lane · entry 4851
عَمًى
Stature or height.
A nominal use illustrated in praise of a person's height.
- Lane · entry 4851
عَمًى
Dust.
A lexical synonym of غُبَارٌ.
- Lane · entry 4851
عَمَا
Remoteness or distance.
Used in a poetic description of an object seen from afar.
- Lane · entry 4851
عِمْيَةٌ
A chosen, selected, or preferred thing.
A substantive derived from اِعْتَمَى in the sense of choosing.
- Lane · entry 4854
عَمَاءٌ
Cloud, especially a dense or covering mass of cloud.
The term has several Classical descriptions, including lofty, dense, smoke-like, raining, thin, black, or white cloud.
- Lane · entry 4856
صَكَّةَ عُمَىٍّ
The fiercest midday heat of the hot season.
A fixed expression for the time when the heat is so intense that it dazzles or nearly blinds; associated variants and proper-name explanations do not alter the idiomatic meaning.
- Lane · entry 4857
عَمَاءَةٌ
Stubborn persistence, contentious wrangling, or litigation in a false or futile matter.
A figurative noun related to persistence in disputation; it is equated with لَجَاجٌ in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 4858
عَمَاءَةٌ
Ignorance or a state of not knowing.
An alternative lexical interpretation of the same nominal family in the cited expression.
- Lane · entry 4858
عَمَايَةٌ
A remaining portion of night-darkness; also dimness of the eyes from tears.
A nominal use describing residual darkness or impaired visual clarity.
- Lane · entry 4859
عَمِيَّةٌ
An obscure or unfounded claim to relationship.
Used in the expression دَعْوَةٌ عَمْيَاءُ, an obscure claim of kinship.
- Lane · entry 4860
عُمَّى
The point or condition of death.
Used in the expression تَرَكْنَاهُمْ عُمَّى, meaning that they were left at the point of death.
- Lane · entry 4863
عِمِّيَّا
Trial, punishment, slaughter, civil conflict, or factional strife.
A specialized noun of the measure فِعِّيلَى with several related conflict and ordeal applications.
- Lane · entry 4864
قَتِيلُ عِمِّيَّا
A slain person whose killer is unknown.
A fixed legal and social expression for an unidentified homicide.
- Lane · entry 4864
عِمِّيَّةٌ
Pride, self-magnification, error, or deviation from what is right.
In the expression concerning a banner of عِمِّيَّة, it refers to factional conflict founded on pride, error, or partisanship.
- Lane · entry 4865
عَامٍ
One who does not see or recognize the road.
A description of someone unable to find the way.
- Lane · entry 4866
عَامِيَةٌ
Of land, having its traces effaced or obliterated.
Applied to land whose former signs or features have disappeared.
- Lane · entry 4866
عَامِيَةٌ
Having very little milk.
A specialized epithet explicitly applied to a woman in the cited lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 4866
عَامٍ
Casting or throwing.
A specialized use applied to a man and equated with رَامٍ.
- Lane · entry 4866
الأَعْمَيَانِ
A torrent and a destructive fire, or other paired forces that spare no place or object.
A figurative dual expression based on the perplexity and indiscriminate force associated with blindness; variants include a torrent and night or an excited camel.
- Lane · entry 4867
الأَمْرُ الأَعْمَى
A partisan or factional affair whose manner of proceeding cannot be distinguished.
A fixed figurative description of a case driven by partisanship or ʿasabiyyah without a discernible right course.
- Lane · entry 4867
أَرْضٌ عَمْيَاءُ / مَكَانٌ أَعْمَى
Land or a place in which one cannot be directed to the right course.
A figurative description of terrain or a place that gives no reliable guidance.
- Lane · entry 4867
أَعْمَاءٌ
Trackless tracts of land with no sign of a way, habitation, cultivation, or their traces.
A plural or collective noun for desolate, bewildering terrain; it may also be understood as مَجَاهِلُ, places of wandering.
- Lane · entry 4868
أَعْمَاءٌ
Tall men.
A distinct plural use, explicitly derived from a word meaning tall.
- Lane · entry 4868
مُعَمًّى
A verse or saying whose meaning has been made obscure or difficult to understand.
A passive participial noun describing an enigmatic utterance.
- Lane · entry 4871
المُعْتَمِي
The lion.
A specialized lexical item with no Quranic occurrence in the supplied form groups.
- Lane · entry 4872
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic uses of أَعْمَى and related forms can distinguish physical blindness from blindness of the heart or loss of guidance; some occurrences allow both dimensions in context.
The Form II Quran occurrence is passive and constructional, meaning that something was made obscure to its hearers; it should not be reduced to the physical causative sense alone.