Quranic root
حوج
ḥ · w · j
The root centers on being compelled or dependent with respect to something, hence need, want, or necessity.
From the core notion of need arise the noun for a need, verbs meaning to need or cause to need, and related expressions for seeking what is wanted. A thorny plant is reported as an anomalous branch outside this main semantic development.
- Maqāyīs · row 1469
- Lane · entry 15994
- Lane · entry 15999
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
حَاجَة
ḥājah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A need, want, or necessity.
Used for a need or want experienced by a person or pertaining to a matter; the Quranic occurrences are nominal uses of حَاجَةً.
- Lane · entry 16002
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 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 18 Classical meanings
حَاجَ
To want, need, require, or find necessary.
Form I verb; used with إِلَى for the person or thing needed, and with a following clause for an action one finds necessary.
- Lane · entry 15994
حَاجَ
To desire, seek, or seek after something.
An additional Form I verbal use distinct from simply being in need.
- Lane · entry 15994
حَاجَ
To become poor or fall into want.
Form I use describing entry into poverty or a state of need.
- Lane · entry 15994
حَوَّجَ
To lead someone aside or cause a departure from the way; to leave one's way for love of someone.
Form II, especially in constructions involving a road or forsaking one's route for another person.
- Lane · entry 15995
أَحْوَجَ
To cause someone to need or be in want of a person or thing.
Form IV causative use; the one causing the need may be another person, circumstances, or God.
- Lane · entry 15996
تَحَوَّجَ
To seek what one wants, including means of subsistence.
Form V; may describe seeking repeatedly, leisurely, or one desired object after another.
- Lane · entry 15997
اِحْتَاجَ
To incline toward someone.
A Form VIII use distinct from the more common sense “to need,” which is cross-referenced in the lexical material.
- Lane · entry 15998
حَاجّ
A kind of thorny plant or tree.
A rare lexical branch explicitly treated as anomalous in relation to the root’s main semantic principle.
- Lane · entry 15999
حَوْج
Safety or freedom from evil, harm, or the like.
Used especially in the expression حَوْجًا لَكَ, said to someone who stumbles as a wish for safety.
- Lane · entry 16000
حُوج
Poverty.
A nominal form denoting a state of want or indigence.
- Lane · entry 16001
حَاجَة
A thing wanted or needed; an object of need, affair, business, or requisite matter.
A Classical nominal extension of حَاجَة beyond the abstract state of need; it may denote an affair to be dealt with or a thing required.
- Lane · entry 16002
حَاجَة
One's need in the euphemistic expression for relieving oneself.
In قَضَى حَاجَتَهُ, the expression can mean that he accomplished his need, i.e. eased nature.
- Lane · entry 16002
حَاجَة
An act of disobedience to which one is enticed.
Attested in the idiomatic collocation مَا تَرَكْتُ مِنْ حَاجَةٍ وَلَا دَاجَةٍ.
- Lane · entry 16002
حَوْجَاء
Doubt or uncertainty.
Used in an idiomatic negative construction for the absence of doubt concerning a person, thing, or affair.
- Lane · entry 16003
حَوْجَاء
A word or response returned in reply, whether favorable or unfavorable.
Attested in a set expression describing a person who gives neither a bad nor a good reply.
- Lane · entry 16003
حُوَيْجَاء
A different or winding road.
Used of taking an alternative, winding route through the land.
- Lane · entry 16004
حَائِجَة
A great want or something much wanted.
An intensive adjectival use in the expression حَاجَةٌ حَائِجَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 16005
مُحْوِج
Needy, indigent, or poor.
An epithet applied to a person; the Classical material also records irregular plural usage.
- Lane · entry 16006
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The supplied Quranic data contains only the noun حَاجَة; the other derived forms and rare lexical branches are broader Classical Arabic evidence, not additional Quran-attested form groups.