Quranic root
حدث
ḥ · d · th
The root centers on something coming into being after it was not, and hence on newness, occurrence, and what comes forth as speech or narrative.
From origination and newness develop meanings for an event or newly occurring thing, for causing something to arise, and for speech or a report as something that comes forth successively.
- Maqāyīs · row 1314
- Mufradāt · row 302
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 36
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَدَّثَ
ḥaddatha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 tell, relate, or report something; to narrate.
The construction may take a person as the recipient and a statement, account, or event as what is told. In the Quran it includes reporting what has happened.
- Lane · entry 13740
- Mufradāt · row 302
Selected Quran examples
أَحْدَثَ
ʾaḥdatha
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 bring into existence or cause to occur anew; to originate or bring about a matter.
A causative construction for producing something or causing a new event or state to arise.
- Lane · entry 13742
- Mufradāt · row 302
Selected Quran examples
حَدِيث
ḥadīth
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 28 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.
Speech, a statement, conversation, or discourse.
The word may denote ordinary talk or a statement, and may also describe communication received through hearing or revelation; revealed scripture is explicitly called حديث in the Quran-focused evidence.
- Lane · entry 13754
- Mufradāt · row 302
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:140word 21
“a conversation”
Quran 52:34word 2
“a statement”
An account, report, narrative, or story.
The plural أَحَادِيثَ may refer to narrated accounts, events, or what is related in dreams; the sense can also denote a story presented as an example or report.
- Lane · entry 13754
- Mufradāt · row 302
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:101word 9
“of the events”
Quran 79:15word 3
“(the) story”
مُحْدَث
muḥdath
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Newly brought into being, newly presented, or recent.
A passive-participial description of something made or occurring after it was not; in the Quran it characterizes a newly presented reminder or communication.
- Mufradāt · row 302
- Lane · entry 13742
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:2word 7
“anew”
Quran 26:5word 7
“new”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:76أَتُحَدِّثُونَهُمDo you tell them
- 4:42حَدِيثًۭا(any) statement
- 4:78حَدِيثًۭاany statement
- 4:87حَدِيثًۭا(in) statement
- 4:140حَدِيثٍa conversation
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 25 Classical meanings
حَدَثَ
To be new or recent; to come into existence, begin, originate, happen, or come to pass.
Used of a thing, fault, affair, or event that was not present before.
- Lane · entry 13739
حَدَاثَةٌ
Youthfulness; the condition of being young.
Especially the first period of a person's life.
- Lane · entry 13739
- Lane · entry 13755
حَدَّثَ
Of towns or places, to resound with a buzzing or confused noise.
A figurative usage applied to places characterized by persistent noise.
- Lane · entry 13740
حَادَثَ
To polish a sword; figuratively, to polish or cleanse the heart.
The heart usage is an explicitly figurative extension of polishing a sword.
- Lane · entry 13741
حَادَثَ
To converse or talk with another.
The reciprocal construction denotes conversation between persons.
- Lane · entry 13741
أَحْدَثَ
To void one's ordure or break wind, thereby entering a state of legal impurity or invalidating ritual purity.
A technical legal-ritual usage.
- Lane · entry 13742
أَحْدَثَ
To commit adultery or fornication.
A figurative or extended usage recorded for the verb; it may be said of a man or a woman.
- Lane · entry 13742
تَحَدَّثَ
To talk or converse; to tell or relate stories or narratives.
The verb may be followed by بِـ for talking about or relating something, and may be used of conversation with others.
- Lane · entry 13743
تَحَدَّثَ
In figurative usage, for clouds to ‘talk’ by thundering, or for speech to describe plants and vegetation.
The evidence records alternative interpretations of the figurative expression rather than a literal human conversation.
- Lane · entry 13743
اِسْتَحْدَثَ
To find, gain, or acquire new tidings or information.
Used with خبر for newly obtained information.
- Lane · entry 13745
حِدْثٌ
A person known for having many stories or for relating them well; a companion in conversation.
In constructions such as حِدْثُ مُلُوكٍ or حِدْثُ نِسَاءٍ, it describes someone who converses with kings or with women.
- Lane · entry 13746
حَدَثٌ
A novelty or new thing; especially a disapproved religious innovation.
In religious usage, it can denote an innovation not grounded in revealed scripture, the Sunnah, or the accepted practice of earlier authorities.
- Lane · entry 13747
حَدَثٌ
An accident, event, occurrence, mishap, calamity, or affliction.
The plural حَوَادِثُ is common for accidents or adverse events, especially those attributed to time or fortune.
- Lane · entry 13747
حَدَثٌ
A state of legal impurity that prevents or invalidates ritual prayer and related acts of worship.
The term may refer either to the bodily cause, such as voiding or breaking wind, or to the resulting state that annuls ritual purity.
- Lane · entry 13747
حَدَثٌ
Rain of the beginning or first part of the year.
The plural أَحْدَاثُ can denote such early-year rains.
- Lane · entry 13747
حَدَثٌ
Young or youthful, applied to a person or to a young animal.
The evidence applies the adjective to people, horses, asses, camels, and similar animals; the examples do not impose a narrower class restriction.
- Lane · entry 13747
حِدْثَانٌ
The first or beginning period of a state, case, or affair; freshness.
It may refer specifically to the beginning of youth or to acting while a matter is still fresh.
- Lane · entry 13752
حَدِيثٌ
New, recent, or having begun recently.
This adjective occurs in expressions such as حَدِيثُ عَهْدٍ, ‘recently entered a state or condition.’
- Lane · entry 13754
حَدِيثٌ
A matter talked about; in some usage, a remarkable or wonderful story or thing.
This is a broader Classical usage distinct from the Quranic senses of ordinary speech and narrated account.
- Lane · entry 13754
حَدِيثٌ
A transmitted tradition or report, especially one attributed to the Prophet; also a sacred tradition in which the meaning is from God and the wording is reported in the Prophet's phraseology.
A technical religious usage, with أَحَادِيثُ as its characteristic plural in the prophetic-tradition sense.
- Lane · entry 13754
أَحْدَثُ
More or most new or recent.
A comparative or superlative form used of relative recency.
- Lane · entry 13761
مُحْدَثٌ
Post-classical, modern, or belonging to a later generation.
Applied especially to a later poet or author, in contrast with the earlier authorities.
- Lane · entry 13763
مُحَدَّثٌ
A veracious or sound-minded person whose conjecture is true and into whose mind an insight is put, as though he had been told it.
A specialized description of inspired sagacity, exemplified in the cited tradition by ʿUmar.
- Lane · entry 13765
مُحَدِّثٌ
A teller or relater of stories, narratives, or traditions; especially a transmitter skilled in prophetic traditions.
The plural مُحَدِّثُونَ may refer to a company of such narrators.
- Lane · entry 13766
مَحْدُوثَةٌ
Land upon which the rain called حَدَث has fallen.
A specialized agricultural or weather expression.
- Lane · entry 13767