Quranic root
حير
ḥ · y · r
The root centers on hesitation, fluctuation, or going back and forth in a matter.
This orientation extends to mental perplexity and loss of direction, water that circles or remains without an outlet, and fullness in which contents move within a container.
- Maqāyīs · row 1486
- Mufradāt · row 374
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
حَيْرَان
ḥayrān
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Confused or perplexed, unable to discern the right course; erring or lost in direction.
Describes a state of mental bewilderment and uncertainty, especially in an affair or situation where the right course cannot be recognized.
- Lane · entry 16314
- Mufradāt · row 374
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:71word 23
“confused”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:71حَيْرَانَconfused
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
حَارَ
To be dazzled by something looked at, turning one's eyes away from it.
Identified as the primary signification of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 16301
حَارَ
Of water: to collect and remain, circle, or fluctuate in a place as though it had no way to run.
A description of water moving back and forth or remaining confined in one place.
- Lane · entry 16301
حَيَّرَ
To cause someone to become confused or perplexed and unable to discern the right course.
A causative construction corresponding to the state of bewilderment.
- Lane · entry 16302
حَيَّرَ
Of water, reportedly to whirl in an eddy.
The attribution is qualified in the lexical evidence, which notes that this sense may properly require the passive form.
- Lane · entry 16302
أَحَارَ
To cause food or a drink to descend easily through the throat into the stomach.
A Form IV use describing easy passage of food or drink.
- Lane · entry 16303
تَحَيَّرَ
To remain or become stationary or without direction; of clouds, to continue without motion while pouring rain, and of time, people, or a person staying in a place.
The construction is applied to clouds, time, a person, or remaining at a place; the contexts emphasize continuation without proceeding in a clear direction.
- Lane · entry 16304
تَحَيَّرَ
Of a place or land, to become full of water; of a bowl, to become full of food and grease.
A fullness construction applied to water-filled land or to a container filled with food or grease.
- Lane · entry 16304
إِسْتَحْيَرَ
Of youthful sap or vigor: to flow, become complete, and fill or occupy the body.
A figurative bodily use; the lexical reports vary between flowing, becoming complete, and filling the body.
- Lane · entry 16305
إِسْتَحْيَرَ
Of a beverage or wine, to be made to descend easily through the throat.
Attested in a passive construction describing the drink's easy passage.
- Lane · entry 16305
حَيْرٌ
An enclosure like a fenced preserve, or a pasture closed to public grazing.
A noun for a delimited place, particularly one in which grazing is restricted.
- Lane · entry 16306
حَيْرَمَا
A lexicalized expression equivalent to رُبَّمَا, ‘perhaps’ or ‘it may be that’.
The form is reported with orthographic uncertainty in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 16306
حِيرَ بِيرَ
To be in a bad state, in perdition, or in error.
Occurs in the idiomatic expression إِنَّهُ فِي حِيرَ بِيرَ and its variant.
- Lane · entry 16307
حِيَرٌ
Much property or many cattle; by extension, a numerous household or family.
A plural or collective expression for abundance of possessions, livestock, or dependents.
- Lane · entry 16309
حَيْرَةً
Of land, to become green with vegetation through the collecting and continued presence of water.
Used in a construction describing land that becomes verdant because water accumulates and remains in it.
- Lane · entry 16311
حَارِيٌّ
Heerite or made in al-Hirah, especially a sword, camel saddle, or leather saddle ornament.
A nisbah adjective referring to manufacture in the town of al-Hirah.
- Lane · entry 16312
حَيْرِيَّ الدَّهْرِ
For as long as time lasts; indefinitely or for an incalculable period.
A fixed temporal expression with several reported vocalic and orthographic variants.
- Lane · entry 16313
حَيْرَى
Of a meadow, full of water.
A figurative adjective describing a water-filled meadow.
- Lane · entry 16314
حَيْرَى
An epithet for the midday summer sun.
A specialized poetic or descriptive epithet.
- Lane · entry 16314
حَائِرٌ
A depression or enclosure in which water collects, remains, or circles; a watering-trough or tank.
The place may have depressed ground and raised edges, retaining water that does not flow out.
- Lane · entry 16316
حَائِرٌ
A garden, by extension from a water-retaining enclosure.
A derived place-name or common noun connected with the water-collecting sense.
- Lane · entry 16316
حَائِرٌ
Grease or oily animal matter flowing from flesh or fat.
A noun for the oily substance released from animal flesh or fat.
- Lane · entry 16316
مُتَحَيِّرٌ
Of stars or planets, erratic: appearing at one time to move retrograde and at another to pursue a direct course.
A specialized astronomical use describing apparent changes of direction.
- Lane · entry 16318
مُتَحَيِّرٌ
Of clouds, heavy or rain-bearing and remaining without motion, or moving to and fro without being driven onward.
Applied to clouds that linger in the sky while raining or shifting without progressing away.
- Lane · entry 16318
مُسْتَحِيرٌ
A way across a desert whose place of exit is unknown.
A specialized noun for a route whose destination or means of egress cannot be identified.
- Lane · entry 16319
مُسْتَحِيرٌ
Anything continuing endlessly or hardly, or never, coming to an end.
An extended adjective for something apparently interminable.
- Lane · entry 16319
مُسْتَحِيرٌ
A full bowl, especially one containing much grease; also broth containing much grease.
A fullness expression applied to food containers and greasy broth.
- Lane · entry 16319
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic root has one supplied occurrence, حَيْرَانَ at 6:71:23; the water, enclosure, astronomical, bodily, and other extensions are broader Classical Arabic evidence.
The reported Form II water-eddy usage is explicitly qualified in the lexical evidence because the cited copy does not confirm it and the passive form may be required.
The expression حَيْرَمَا is reported as equivalent to رُبَّمَا but with orthographic uncertainty.