Quranic root
عرم
ʿ · r · m
The root centers on severity, force, and sharpness, especially a forceful or harsh quality.
This orientation appears in harsh temperament, vehemence and strength, abundance or intensity, and the overwhelming rush of water. Terms for variegated coloring are treated as anomalous or possibly involving substitution, while the male-rat interpretation of the Quranic expression is disputed.
- Maqāyīs · row 3185
- Mufradāt · row 966
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَرِمٌ
ʿarimun
- 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 dam or embankment raised across a valley or torrent-bed.
In the Quranic expression سَيْلُ الْعَرِمِ, this is the interpretation in which the barrier was breached and the flood followed.
- Lane · entry 2946
- Mufradāt · row 966
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:16word 5
“(of) the dam”
An overwhelming torrent or violent, devastating rain.
This is an alternative interpretation of the Quranic expression, emphasizing the force and intractability of the water rather than a dam.
- Lane · entry 2946
- Mufradāt · row 966
A male rat or gerbil.
Reported as an interpretation of the Quranic expression on the explanation that the animal bored through the dam and thereby caused the flood.
- Lane · entry 2946
- Mufradāt · row 966
A proper name for a valley in Yemen.
Reported as another interpretation of the noun in the Quranic passage; the supplied evidence does not establish a more specific modern location.
- Lane · entry 2946
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 34:16ٱلْعَرِمِ(of) the dam
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 40 Classical meanings
عَرَمَ
To be harsh, ill-natured, perverse, sharp, vehement, or strong in disposition.
Used of a child or man; the same verb is also reported with the sense of becoming bad, corrupt, or wicked.
- Lane · entry 2938
عَرَمَ
To be ignorant.
An alternative lexical use of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 2938
عَرِمَ
Of a bone, to exhale its scent or odor, especially when burnt.
The form and sense are specifically stated of a bone.
- Lane · entry 2938
عَرَمَ
To treat someone with ill-natured harshness or extreme perversity.
A transitive construction with a person as object.
- Lane · entry 2938
عَرَمَ
To strip flesh from a bone with the front teeth.
A transitive construction involving eating the flesh from a bone.
- Lane · entry 2938
عَرَمَ
Of camels, to crop trees or obtain pasture from them.
Used of animals feeding by taking material from trees.
- Lane · entry 2938
عَرَمَ
Of a child, to suck the breast of its mother.
A transitive construction may take the mother or her breast as its object.
- Lane · entry 2938
تَعْرِيمٌ
Mixing one thing with another.
The Form II construction عَرَّمَهُ بِهِ means that he mixed one thing with another.
- Lane · entry 2939
مُعَارَمَةٌ
Contending in an altercation, disputing, or litigating, and thereby causing conflict or discord.
A reciprocal or interpersonal construction, synonymous with contention and quarrelling.
- Lane · entry 2940
أَعْرَمَ
To induce someone to commit an evil deed that he had not previously committed.
A transitive Form IV causative construction.
- Lane · entry 2941
اِعْتِرَامٌ
The becoming hard to bear, severe, or distressing, especially of trials, conflicts, or factions.
Used with فِتَن and related situations of conflict or hardship.
- Lane · entry 2943
اِعْتَرَمَ
Of a mare, to go at random or headlong, disregard guidance, and deviate from the right course.
The usage is specifically reported of a mare.
- Lane · entry 2943
اِعْتَرَمَ
Of a mother, to seek a breast-feeding infant; alternatively, to draw milk from her own breasts and expel it.
The cited expression also received figurative explanations involving undertaking an irrelevant task or censuring oneself when no target is available.
- Lane · entry 2943
عَرْمٌ
Grease, gravy, or dripping exuded from meat and fat; also the residue or dirt of a cooking-pot.
The word can denote either the edible dripping or the remains adhering to the pot.
- Lane · entry 2944
عَرَمٌ
Variegation or speckling produced by black mixed with white; also a mixed collection of sheep and goats.
The coloration may occur in an animal's coat, lip, or ear; the livestock sense denotes a collection containing both sheep and goats.
- Lane · entry 2945
عُرْمَةٌ
An iron helmet.
- Lane · entry 2947
عَرَمَةٌ
A quantity or heap of reaped grain, especially wheat or barley, collected and trodden for winnowing.
It may denote grain not yet winnowed or grain that has subsequently been winnowed.
- Lane · entry 2948
عَرَمَةٌ
A place where sand collects.
The plural is reported as عَرَمَاتٌ.
- Lane · entry 2948
عَرَمَةٌ
A heap of dung.
This sense is reported as an alternative explanation.
- Lane · entry 2948
عَرَمَةٌ
Flesh-meat, especially the meat of a slaughtered camel.
Used in an expression describing meat as savory.
- Lane · entry 2948
عَرَمَةٌ
The odor of cooked flesh-meat.
- Lane · entry 2948
عَرِمَةٌ
A vineyard.
An uncommon, attributed lexical report.
- Lane · entry 2949
عُرَامٌ
Evilness of disposition, ill-nature, perversity, or repugnance.
The noun may describe a person; in related usage it includes annoyance or molestation.
- Lane · entry 2951
عُرَامٌ
Sharpness, force, vehemence, or vigorous abundance.
It may describe a beverage, an army's force and numerousness, or another strongly manifested quality.
- Lane · entry 2951
عُرَامٌ
Quitting the right course and exceeding proper bounds.
A figurative or behavioral extension of the quality of forceful excess.
- Lane · entry 2951
عُرَامٌ
Ignorance.
A separately reported nominal use.
- Lane · entry 2951
عُرَامٌ
The flesh clinging to a bone, or material stripped or cropped from a tree, including its bark.
The tree sense may refer specifically to bark or to portions taken by browsing animals.
- Lane · entry 2951
عَرِيمٌ
A calamity or misfortune.
The word is connected with the hardness or pressure of the event.
- Lane · entry 2952
عُرَامِيٌّ
Relating to ignorance or characterized by ignorance.
A relational adjective derived from the reported sense of عُرَامٌ as ignorance.
- Lane · entry 2953
عَارِمٌ
Ill-natured, perverse, repugnant, insolent, unthankful, bad, corrupt, or wicked.
Applied especially to a child or man; its feminine plural is also used as an epithet of irritating creeping insects. أَعْرَمُ expresses a higher degree of the same quality.
- Lane · entry 2954
- Lane · entry 2956
عَارِمٌ
Sharp, vehement, or strong.
The adjective can qualify a tongue or another forceful manifestation.
- Lane · entry 2954
عَارِمٌ
Ignorant.
A separately reported adjectival use.
- Lane · entry 2954
عَارِمٌ
Extremely or vehemently cold.
Used of a day or night; the plural expression refers to vehemently cold nights.
- Lane · entry 2954
عَارِمٌ
A suckling at the breast, or the act of sucking the breast.
The word may denote either the nursing child or the associated action in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 2954
عَرَمْرَمٌ
Hard, strong, or vehement; also numerous, especially when applied to an army.
The adjective can be applied broadly to things, while the army sense emphasizes massed strength or number.
- Lane · entry 2955
عَرَمْرَمٌ
Of a man, having a strong degree of difficulty or barbarousness in speech.
A specialized description of defective or non-Arabic utterance.
- Lane · entry 2955
أَعْرَمُ
Speckled or marked with black and white; two-coloured or variegated.
Applied to sand-grouse eggs, a serpent, or a sheep or goat with a white mark or black specks; it may also describe a mixed flock of sheep and goats.
- Lane · entry 2956
أَعْرَمُ
Uncircumcised.
Used as an epithet of men; reported plurals include عُرْمَانٌ and عَرَامِينُ.
- Lane · entry 2956
أَعْرَمُ
A tiller or cultivator of land.
Reported as a singular of عُرْمَانٌ.
- Lane · entry 2956
أَعْرَمُ
A place or tract of seed-produce.
Reported as a plural usage associated with places producing grain or seed.
- Lane · entry 2956
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The single Quranic occurrence occurs in سَيْلُ الْعَرِمِ, a phrase with competing interpretations: dam, overwhelming torrent or rain, male rat or gerbil, and a valley name. The supplied contextual gloss selects the dam interpretation but does not settle the exegetical alternatives.
The male-rat interpretation is reported in Quran-focused lexical evidence but is rejected in the supplied root-level discussion; it is therefore retained as a reported Quranic interpretation, not presented as certain.