Quranic root
عوج
ʿ · w · j
The root denotes inclination or deviation from a straight or upright state.
Its uses develop from bending, turning, and curving of objects or directed movement to unevenness and deviation in land, paths, religion, scripture, and other abstract domains. Classical sources distinguish visible عَوَج from non-visible عِوَج, though some report overlap.
- Maqāyīs · row 3343
- Mufradāt · row 1021
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 9
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عِوَجٌ
ʿiwajun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 9 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.
Deviation, crookedness, or perversion from rectitude in a path, religion, or revealed text.
Used for an abstract defect or departure from what is straight, including seeking to divert or corrupt the path of God and describing a scripture as free from deviation.
- Lane · entry 5168
- Mufradāt · row 1021
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:1word 11
“any crookedness”
Quran 3:99word 12
“(seem) crooked”
Unevenness or irregularity in a level expanse or terrain.
Used of land or a surface whose variation is perceived by reflection or discernment rather than as the simple visible bending of an upright object.
- Lane · entry 5168
- Mufradāt · row 1021
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:107word 4
“any crookedness”
In the construction لا عِوَجَ له: no turning aside from it, hence no evasion, escape, or way of avoiding it.
A conventional negative construction expressing that the thing in question cannot be evaded or eluded.
- Lane · entry 5162
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:108word 5
“deviation”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 3:99عِوَجًۭا(seem) crooked
- 7:45عِوَجًۭاcrookedness
- 7:86عِوَجًۭا ۚcrooked
- 11:19عِوَجًۭاcrookedness
- 14:3عِوَجًا ۚcrookedness
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 26 Classical meanings
عَوِجَ / عَوَجٌ / أَعْوَجُ
To be or become crooked, curved, bent, winding, distorted, or uneven; crookedness of a visible or upright object.
The a-vocalized noun and related adjective are commonly applied to objects apprehended by sight, such as wood, walls, staffs, spears, and similar things.
- Lane · entry 5162
- Lane · entry 5168
- Lane · entry 5173
عِوَجٌ
Difficulty, arduousness, or a troublesome character in an affair.
A specialized application to an affair or matter, contrasted in the lexical discussion with the crookedness of a visible object.
- Lane · entry 5162
عَاجَ / عُجْتُ
To turn or incline toward someone or a place; to come to, alight at, or pass by a place or person.
Used of directed movement toward an abode or person and of stopping during travel.
- Lane · entry 5162
عَاجَ
To remain, stay, dwell, stop, or pause at a place.
Used both intransitively for staying in a location and for stopping or pausing there.
- Lane · entry 5162
- Lane · entry 5163
- Lane · entry 5172
يَعُوجُ عَنْ
To turn back from, revert from, or relinquish something.
Occurs in expressions describing a person who does not withdraw from an undertaking or object.
- Lane · entry 5162
عِيَاجٌ
Returning to what one had intended, attended to, or been engaged in.
An infinitival noun reported for the act of returning to a prior concern or purpose.
- Lane · entry 5162
عُجْتُهُ / عَاجَ
To turn or deflect an animal or other object; especially to turn a camel's or horse's head by the rein, or to incline a head, neck, or tongue.
The construction may describe steering an animal, bending a body part, or turning something away from a direction.
- Lane · entry 5162
مَا أَعُوجُ بِكَلَامِهِ
To pay no regard or attention to someone's speech or discourse.
A conventional dialectal expression, with variant wording reported in the lexical sources.
- Lane · entry 5162
عُجْتُهُ بِالمَكَانِ
To make someone remain, stay, dwell, or abide in a place.
The verb is used transitively as well as intransitively in this construction.
- Lane · entry 5162
عَوَّجَ / مُعَوَّجٌ
To make, render, or cause a thing to become crooked, curved, bent, distorted, or uneven.
The causative use applies to an externally affected object and is distinct from something becoming crooked of itself.
- Lane · entry 5163
- Lane · entry 5173
تَعْوِيجٌ / عُوجٌ
A bending, curving, and tension of the legs or sinews of a horse or similar animal; horses possessing this conformation.
In descriptions of horses, the term may denote a recognized hind-leg quality and, by substantivization, the legs or animals characterized by it.
- Lane · entry 5163
- Lane · entry 5173
عَوَّجَ / مُعَوَّجٌ
To set or inlay a thing, especially a vessel, with ivory or tortoise-shell; an object so ornamented.
This is a specialized material and craft use of the Form II verb and its related passive participle.
- Lane · entry 5163
- Lane · entry 5177
عَاجٌ
Pliable, tractable, submissive, or manageable, especially of a she-camel.
The epithet may also emphasize a soft, flexible manner of movement.
- Lane · entry 5167
عَاجٌ
Ivory, especially an elephant's tusk; also tortoise-shell and, in broader usage, certain bone material; a piece or object made from it.
The word can denote the raw material or articles made from ivory or tortoise-shell, including bracelets.
- Lane · entry 5167
عَاجِ / عَاجٍ
A cry used to chide or urge a she-camel.
The form varies according to definiteness, pause, dialect, and poetic usage.
- Lane · entry 5167
عِوَجٌ / عَوَجٌ
An unsound or perverted opinion, saying, affair, natural disposition, or means of subsistence.
Used of abstract conditions or character that are not sound or rightly ordered; the religious application is also found in broader traditional usage.
- Lane · entry 5168
- Lane · entry 5173
العُوَيْجَاءُ
A species of millet or sorghum.
A lexicalized diminutive form used as the name of the plant.
- Lane · entry 5170
عَوَّاجٌ
A possessor or seller of ivory or tortoise-shell.
The word is interpreted either as one who owns such material or as one who trades in it.
- Lane · entry 5171
عَوْجَاءُ
A bow.
A lexicalized feminine adjective used as the noun for the curved weapon.
- Lane · entry 5173
عَوْجَاءُ
Bending toward a child to suckle; of a she-camel, lean, lank, light-fleshed, or emaciated so that the back is crooked.
The woman and she-camel applications are conventional specialized descriptions, not a general restriction on the root.
- Lane · entry 5173
أَعْوَجُ
Oblique or slanting, especially of a new moon.
A specialized astronomical description of the crescent's position or shape.
- Lane · entry 5173
العُوجُ
The days, figuratively viewed as alternating in their movement away from and back toward good fortune.
A proverbial pluralized expression for the variability of fortune.
- Lane · entry 5173
أَعْوَجُ
A proper name of a watering-trough.
A named object rather than an ordinary descriptive use.
- Lane · entry 5173
أَعْوَجِيٌّ
An Awaji horse, or something related to the celebrated horse named أَعْوَجُ and its lineage.
A nisbah designation for horses descended from or associated with the renowned stallion; it is not a general adjective meaning crooked.
- Lane · entry 5174
مَعَاجٌ
A place to which one turns, or in which one remains, stays, dwells, or abides.
A locative noun associated with turning toward or remaining in a place.
- Lane · entry 5175
مَعَاجٌ
The act of remaining or staying, and the act of turning a camel by its head.
An infinitival use of the noun, with separate applications to staying in a place and steering a camel.
- Lane · entry 5175
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Classical sources commonly distinguish عَوَجٌ for visible or upright objects from عِوَجٌ for land and abstract matters, but they also report variant usage and disagreement over the distinction.
The Quranic form in this packet is the noun عِوَجٌ; the many derived verbs and adjectives in the Classical material are related lexical forms, not additional Quranic form groups.
Lane's printed Quran citations use historical citation conventions; the modern verse locations shown in the examples are taken from QAC occurrences.