Quranic root
عقم
ʿ · q · m
A root centered on constriction, dryness, and the inability to receive or produce an effect.
The semantic range develops from dryness or constriction that blocks reception into barrenness, non-productivity, severity, obstruction, and figurative forms of restricted or unfruitful action.
- Maqāyīs · row 3269
- Mufradāt · row 1000
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَقِيمٌ
ʿaqīmun
- Part of speech
- Adjective / substantive 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.
Barren; unable to receive or produce offspring.
In the Quran, applied to a woman or to the reproductive capacity associated with women, including the woman described as an old woman and the women referred to collectively.
- Lane · entry 4206
- Lane · entry 4216
- Mufradāt · row 1000
Selected Quran examples
Quran 51:29word 9
“barren”
Quran 42:50word 8
“barren”
Non-fecundating and therefore unproductive or destructive, especially of a wind that brings neither rain nor fruitfulness.
In the Quran, applied to the wind sent against ʿĀd; the construction concerns failure to fertilize clouds or trees and consequent destruction.
- Lane · entry 4216
- Mufradāt · row 1000
Selected Quran examples
Quran 51:41word 7
“the barren”
A day deprived of its expected fruit or joy; specifically, the Resurrection Day understood as having no ordinary day after it.
In the Quran, applied to a day. The transmitted explanations emphasize either the absence of joy or the fact that no day follows the Resurrection Day.
- Lane · entry 4216
- Mufradāt · row 1000
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:55word 16
“barren”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 4 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 30 Classical meanings
عُقِمَتْ مَفَاصِلُهُ
His joints became dry, bound, and impacted so that the backbone was as one vertebra.
Used of bodily joints, including in an account of people unable to prostrate themselves.
- Lane · entry 4198
عَقُمَ
To become bad or evil in disposition.
A figurative use applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 4198
عَقِمَ
To become silent.
A figurative verbal use.
- Lane · entry 4198
عَقَمَ
To make a womb barren or incapable of receiving offspring.
A causative transitive use, including the construction in which God is said to have made a womb barren.
- Lane · entry 4198
تَعْقِمُ الرَّحِمَ
To sever communion, kinship, and kindness between people.
Figuratively said of a false oath and its effect on social ties.
- Lane · entry 4198
عَقَّمَهُ
To silence someone or a group.
Form II causative/intensive usage.
- Lane · entry 4199
عَاقَمَهُ
To contend, dispute, litigate, or vie with someone for superiority.
Form III reciprocal or confrontational usage, including striving to surpass another in strength or power.
- Lane · entry 4200
تَعَقَّمَ
In a poetic expression, to dig hollows in the sides of a water source; another interpretation is to go to and fro.
The two interpretations are reported for the same poetic usage.
- Lane · entry 4202
التَّعَاقُمُ
Coming to water by turns or time after time.
A verbal noun synonymous with coming successively or alternately.
- Lane · entry 4203
الاِعْتِقَامُ
Testing a well by digging a small shaft in it near the water to determine whether the water is sweet before completing the excavation.
A specialized well-digging technique.
- Lane · entry 4204
الاِعْتِقَامُ
Entering into or embarking upon an affair.
Figurative usage of the same verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 4204
الاِعْتِقَامُ
Overcoming another in a game of hazard.
A specialized gaming usage, synonymous with gambling victory.
- Lane · entry 4204
عَقْمٌ
A red garment or a variegated, figured cloth, including a cloth used as a covering for a camel-vehicle.
The sources report several closely related textile applications, including a particular red garment and figured cloth.
- Lane · entry 4205
عُقْمٌ
Dryness that prevents the reception of an impression or effect.
Presented as the primary nominal signification; it is also used for barrenness of the womb.
- Lane · entry 4206
عَقْمَةُ القَمَرِ
The return or recurrence of the moon.
A conventional expression.
- Lane · entry 4208
عُقْمِىٌّ
A man of old or hereditary nobility and generosity.
A social and character description.
- Lane · entry 4211
عُقْمِىٌّ
Obscure, recondite, archaic, or difficult-to-understand speech or language.
Applied to expressions whose mode or vocabulary is unknown, obsolete, or no longer ordinarily used.
- Lane · entry 4211
عَقَامٌ
A vehement war or battle in which there is much slaughter and no one pauses or waits for another.
A figurative extension describing an especially relentless conflict.
- Lane · entry 4214
عَقَامٌ
A person of evil disposition; by extension, a woman of evil disposition.
A figurative nominal use distinct from the verbal description of becoming bad-tempered.
- Lane · entry 4214
عَقَامٌ
An incurable disease, or one from which recovery is not expected.
An idiomatic pathological use; related variant forms are reported in the lexical tradition.
- Lane · entry 4214
عَقَامٌ
A strong, mature she-camel.
A specialized zoological or descriptive use, especially of a camel in an advanced age class.
- Lane · entry 4214
عَقَامٌ / عُقَامٌ
A species of fish; according to another report, a sea serpent.
The sources preserve both identifications for the marine creature.
- Lane · entry 4214
عُقَامٌ
A hard, distressing, or distressful day lacking joy.
A figurative description of a severe day, distinct from the Quranic adjective’s attested day construction.
- Lane · entry 4215
عَقِيمٌ
A man to whom no child is born.
A Classical Arabic extension of the childlessness term to a male person; the Quranic occurrences in this artifact concern other constructions.
- Lane · entry 4216
عَقِيمٌ
Barren or unprofitable in effect, applied to an intellect that benefits its possessor nothing.
A figurative use of the adjective with intellect as its subject.
- Lane · entry 4216
عَقِيمٌ
Strange or difficult-to-understand words, expressions, or sentences.
A figurative application to speech or language, with the speech described as barren or obscure.
- Lane · entry 4216
عَقِيمٌ
Without air or wind and consequently sultry or intensely hot, applied to a day.
A figurative weather description distinct from the Quranic wind and Resurrection-Day constructions.
- Lane · entry 4216
الدُّنْيَا عَقِيمٌ
The present world that yields no good to its people.
An idiomatic figurative expression.
- Lane · entry 4216
المُلْكُ عَقِيمٌ
Dominion in which kinship and friendship afford no protection and ties of relationship are severed.
An idiom referring to the ruthless pursuit or exercise of power, including violence among relatives.
- Lane · entry 4216
مَعْقِمٌ
A joint or knot, especially a joint of a horse or a joint in straw.
Of a horse, it may refer to the pastern, knee, hock, or specified vertebrae; in straw, it denotes a joint or knot.
- Lane · entry 4217
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The day-related Quran interpretation is preserved without converting Lane's historical citation notation into a modern location; the example uses the supplied QAC occurrence at 22:55.