Quranic root
حمد
ḥ · m · d
The root denotes the opposite of blame: praise directed toward a praiseworthy quality, action, or object.
Its lexical range develops from praising or recognizing praiseworthiness to expressions for being praised, praising repeatedly, praiseworthy qualities, and the state or result of being commendable. Some fire-related terms in the transmitted lexicon are treated as transposed forms rather than part of this root principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 1443
- Mufradāt · row 356
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 63
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَمِدَ
ḥamida
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 praised, eulogized, or commended.
The supplied Quran occurrence is the passive imperfect يُحْمَدُ, ‘they be praised’; the active lexical counterpart is to praise or commend.
- Lane · entry 15587
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:188word 9
“they be praised”
حَامِدٌ
ḥāmidun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who praises.
The Quranic form is plural, حَامِدُونَ; in the cited construction the praise is directed to God.
- Lane · entry 15594
- Mufradāt · row 356
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:112word 3
“those who praise”
حَمِيدٌ
ḥamīdun
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 17 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.
Praised or praiseworthy; possessing qualities for which praise is due.
It is frequently an epithet of God, including the sense of one who is praiseworthy in every case.
- Lane · entry 15599
- Mufradāt · row 356
Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:1word 16
“the Praiseworthy”
Quran 11:73word 13
“(is) All-Praiseworthy”
Praising; one who praises.
In the Quranic expression إِنَّهُ حَمِيدٌ مَجِيدٌ, the lexical explanation allows حَمِيدٌ to be understood in the active sense الحامد, as well as in the passive or evaluative sense ‘praised, praiseworthy’.
- Mufradāt · row 356
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:73word 13
“(is) All-Praiseworthy”
حَمْدٌ
ḥamdun
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 43 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.
Praise, eulogy, or commendation.
In Quranic formulas it is especially praise directed to God. The lexical distinction supplied for this noun makes it narrower than generic مدح and broader than شكر: it is not restricted to gratitude for a received benefit. With بِحَمْدِكَ and related constructions, it can mean praising You or ‘praise be to You’.
- Lane · entry 15594
- Lane · entry 15587
- Mufradāt · row 356
Selected Quran examples
Quran 1:2word 1
“All praises and thanks”
Quran 2:30word 20
“with Your praises”
Quran 110:3word 2
“with (the) praises”
مَحْمُودٌ
maḥmūdun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Praised or praiseworthy.
This is the passive-participial form of the root and may describe one who is praised or an object deserving praise.
- Lane · entry 15599
- Mufradāt · row 356
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:79word 12
“praiseworthy”
The praised station; a station in which its occupant is praised by all creatures, or the station of intercession.
This specialized interpretation belongs to the Quranic expression المَقَامُ المَحْمُودُ.
- Lane · entry 15599
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:79word 12
“praiseworthy”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 1:2ٱلْحَمْدُAll praises and thanks
- 2:30بِحَمْدِكَwith Your praises
- 2:267حَمِيدٌPraiseworthy
- 3:188يُحْمَدُوا۟they be praised
- 4:131حَمِيدًۭاPraiseworthy
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 22 Classical meanings
حَمِدَ
To praise, eulogize, commend, or speak well of someone or something; to mention it with approval.
The verb may take عَلَى for the matter for which someone is praised. Praise may express admiration, magnification, or honoring, together with humility in the person offering it.
- Lane · entry 15587
حَمِدَ لَهُ
To approve of a matter for someone; with حَمِدَ إِلَيْهِ, to approve it for someone and enjoin or recommend it.
This is a conventional evaluative construction, also used of approving a neighbor, place, or other circumstance.
- Lane · entry 15587
حَمِدَ
To recompense or requite someone; to give or pay someone his due.
A distinct Classical use of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 15587
حَمِدَ عَلَيْهِ
To be angry with someone.
This meaning is associated with the construction حَمِدَ عَلَيْهِ.
- Lane · entry 15587
حَمَّدَ
To praise God much, repeatedly, or time after time; to declare His praises.
Form II is intensive or iterative relative to حَمِدَ.
- Lane · entry 15588
أَحْمَدَ
To become praiseworthy or commendable; to do or say what deserves praise.
The subject may be a person, action, affair, or result that comes into a praiseworthy state.
- Lane · entry 15589
أَحْمَدَ
To find or judge someone or something praiseworthy, commendable, approved, or suitable.
The object may be a person, action, course of conduct, belief, land, or place; the meaning is evaluative rather than a restriction to any one object class.
- Lane · entry 15589
تَحَمَّدَ
To affect or make a show of praise, or to present oneself as praiseworthy.
A reported lexical attribution also gives ‘to praise oneself’; the transmitted evidence treats this as a reported usage rather than an undisputed definition.
- Lane · entry 15590
تَحَمَّدَ عَلَيْهِ
To reproach someone for a favor bestowed, or to recount one’s gifts or actions to that person.
This construction is given as synonymous with اِمْتَنَّ.
- Lane · entry 15590
تَحَامَدَ
To praise or commend one another.
The reciprocal Form VI may also describe people mutually praising a thing, such as herbage.
- Lane · entry 15591
اِحْتَمَدَ
Of heat, to burn fiercely or become vehement.
This is reported as a transposed form of اِحْتَدَمَ, not as the ordinary praise branch.
- Lane · entry 15592
اِسْتَحْمَدَ
To seek or demand praise; in a transmitted expression, to demand that creatures praise God for His beneficence and bounty.
The source text is uncertain: it transmits an imperative reading but proposes reading اِسْتَحْمَدَ اللَّهُ, ‘God demanded praise’.
- Lane · entry 15593
حَمْدٌ
The young one of the bird called قَطًا.
This is a separate lexical item from حَمْدٌ ‘praise’ despite the identical consonantal spelling.
- Lane · entry 15594
حَمَدَةٌ
The sound of a flaming or blazing fire.
The transmitted lexicographic explanation treats it as a transposed form related to حَدَمَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 15595
حُمَادَاكَ
The utmost of one’s power or ability; figuratively, one’s utmost praiseworthy action.
The expression is followed by the action that represents the limit of one’s ability or praiseworthy conduct.
- Lane · entry 15600
حَمَّادٌ
A person who praises much, frequently, or extravagantly.
The epithet can be used specifically of one who praises God repeatedly.
- Lane · entry 15601
العَوْدُ أَحْمَدُ
In the proverb, repetition is more deserving of praise or brings more praise.
The expression is explained through the approval implied by returning to something after experience of it, or through the greater praise attached to repeating a good action.
- Lane · entry 15602
مَحْمَدَةٌ
A praiseworthy or approvable quality, action, or cause of praise; a thing for which one is praised or approved.
Its plural مَحَامِدُ also means forms or instances of praise.
- Lane · entry 15603
أَحْمَدُ
More praiseworthy; as a personal name, Aḥmad, one characterized as more praiseworthy than others.
The Quran-focused explanation connects the name Aḥmad with both the Prophet’s name and his praiseworthy qualities, and with being more praiseworthy than those before him.
- Lane · entry 15602
- Mufradāt · row 356
مُحَمَّدٌ
One praised much, repeatedly, or time after time; one endowed with many praiseworthy qualities.
As a proper name, the form retains an allusive connection with repeated or abundant praise.
- Lane · entry 15604
- Mufradāt · row 356
حَمِيدٌ
Of a dwelling or place, praised, approved, convenient, or suitable.
This is a transferred Classical use applied to a place where one alights, sojourns, or abides.
- Lane · entry 15599
مُحْتَمِدٌ
Of a day, intensely or vehemently hot.
This derived adjective is associated with the transposed heat sense of اِحْتَمَدَ.
- Lane · entry 15606
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
حَمِيدٌ in 11:73 is explicitly open to both the passive/evaluative sense ‘praised, praiseworthy’ and the active sense ‘praising’.
The Form X evidence is textually uncertain: the transmitted imperative and the proposed reading اِسْتَحْمَدَ اللَّهُ yield different grammatical interpretations.
Fire-related entries such as حَمَدَةٌ and اِحْتَمَدَ are lexically reported as transpositions and should not be used to define the core praise meaning of the root.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The Form X entry lane-unit:Hmd:15593:g1:main preserves a disputed reading: the source transmits a command to demand praise but proposes that the text should instead mean ‘God demanded praise of His creatures’.