Quranic root
صدع
ṣ · d · ʿ
The root centers on an opening, cleaving, or separation in a thing.
From physical splitting or fissuring it extends to crossing or cutting through, separating groups, vegetation breaking the earth, and openly declaring truth as though cleaving concealment. Head-splitting pain is a metaphorical development.
- Maqāyīs · row 2771
- Mufradāt · row 821
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 5
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
صَدَعَ
ṣadaʿa
- 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 make the charged truth or message manifest and proclaim it openly.
In فَاصْدَعْ بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ, the command is understood as openly announcing what was entrusted to the Prophet, without fear, and distinguishing truth from falsehood.
- Lane · entry 25572
- Mufradāt · row 821
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:94word 1
“So proclaim”
To cleave or divide a collective body, setting its members apart.
In the Quranic command, this is understood as separating the congregation through the public declaration of the message; the construction may also be explained as dividing or distinguishing between truth and falsehood.
- Lane · entry 25572
- Mufradāt · row 821
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:94word 1
“So proclaim”
صَدَّعَ
ṣaddaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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 cause head-splitting pain; to afflict with a headache.
The Quranic passive construction refers to being afflicted with headache or head-splitting pain, not to being made drunk or exhausted.
- Lane · entry 25573
- Mufradāt · row 821
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:19word 2
“they will get headache”
تَصَدَّعَ
taṣaddaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- 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 become split, separated, or dispersed into distinct parts.
In يَوْمَئِذٍ يَصَّدَّعُونَ, the people become separated into opposing parties, one for Paradise and one for Hell.
- Lane · entry 25574
- Mufradāt · row 821
Selected Quran examples
Quran 30:43word 16
“they will be divided”
صَدْعٌ
ṣadʿun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A cleft, fissure, or crack, especially a cleaving in the earth.
In وَالْأَرْضِ ذَاتِ الصَّدْعِ, the expression is understood as the earth possessing a cleft or being split open.
- Lane · entry 25576
Selected Quran examples
Quran 86:12word 3
“cracks open”
Vegetation that breaks through the earth.
In the same Quranic expression, الصَّدْعُ is also explained as the plants that cleave the earth, or as the earth opened by plants and springs.
- Lane · entry 25576
Selected Quran examples
Quran 86:12word 3
“cracks open”
مُتَصَدِّعٌ
mutaṣaddiʿun
- 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.
Splitting apart or breaking into fissures.
The Quranic active participle describes a thing becoming cleft or broken apart under an overwhelming force.
- Lane · entry 25574
Selected Quran examples
Quran 59:21word 9
“breaking asunder”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 15:94فَٱصْدَعْSo proclaim
- 30:43يَصَّدَّعُونَthey will be divided
- 56:19يُصَدَّعُونَthey will get headache
- 59:21مُّتَصَدِّعًۭاbreaking asunder
- 86:12ٱلصَّدْعِcracks open
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 36 Classical meanings
صَدَعَ
To cleave, split, slit, or crack a hard thing.
Used of hard objects such as glass, walls, and similar materials; it may also describe slitting or rending a garment.
- Lane · entry 25572
صَدَعَ
To traverse or cut across a desert or river; of a road, to extend through a tract of land; to travel through the night.
These are figurative extensions of cleaving or cutting through space.
- Lane · entry 25572
صَدَعَ
To separate, disperse, or scatter things, or to divide a herd into portions.
The object may be a thing, a group, or livestock divided into two flocks or herds.
- Lane · entry 25572
صَدَعَ
To direct one's course toward someone because of that person's generosity.
Occurs in the construction صَدَعَ فُلَانًا.
- Lane · entry 25572
صَدَعَ بِالأَمْرِ
To hit or attain the proper place or object in an affair.
A specialized construction with بِالأَمْرِ.
- Lane · entry 25572
صَدَعَ إِلَى
To incline toward a thing.
Occurs with إِلَى and the thing toward which one inclines.
- Lane · entry 25572
صَدَعَهُ عَنْهُ
To turn someone or something away from another person or thing.
A transitive construction with عَنْ.
- Lane · entry 25572
تَصَدَّعَ
In an idiom, for the earth to conceal a fleeing person as though it had cleft around him.
Occurs in تَصَدَّعَتِ الأَرْضُ بِفُلَانٍ; this is an idiomatic specialization distinct from ordinary separation.
- Lane · entry 25574
اِنْصَدَعَ
To become cloven, split, slit, or cracked.
Used especially of hard things, walls, eggs, garments, and the earth; of dawn, it means to break.
- Lane · entry 25575
صَدْعٌ
A cleft, split, slit, or crack in a hard thing.
Used of such things as glass vessels and walls; plural صُدُوعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25576
صَدْعٌ
A separated part or portion of a thing, especially of sheep or goats.
An infinitive used substantivally for a portion separated from a larger whole.
- Lane · entry 25576
صَدْعٌ
A single united company or alliance.
In the expression نَاسٌ عَلَيْهِمْ صَدْعٌ وَاحِد, the people are united against someone.
- Lane · entry 25576
صَدَعٌ
A man of light flesh, or of middling stature.
The evidence gives both a light-bodied and an intermediate-stature description.
- Lane · entry 25576
صِدْعٌ
Either half of a thing cleft or split in two.
A distinct nominal form from صَدْعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25577
صِدْعٌ
A company or group of men.
A separate nominal usage from the sense of a half of a split thing.
- Lane · entry 25577
صِدْعٌ
A woman who creates a division in a people's social state and does not repair it.
An idiomatic, figurative application.
- Lane · entry 25577
صَدَعٌ
Of middling size or condition, between two extremes; youthful and strong.
Applied to a mountain-goat, gazelle, wild ass, camel, or other thing intermediate between large and small, young and old, fat and lean, or similar opposites.
- Lane · entry 25578
صَدَعٌ
Penetrating, sharp, or effective in an affair.
An adjectival application to a person and his conduct or judgment.
- Lane · entry 25578
صِدْعَةٌ
A half of a thing cleft, split, or slit in two.
A nominal form distinct from صِدْعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25579
صِدْعَةٌ
A separate herd or flock, especially of camels, sheep, goats, gazelles, or cattle.
Some authorities specify a herd of about sixty animals, but the broader sense is a separate herd or flock.
- Lane · entry 25579
صِدْعَةٌ
A small amount of property or money.
Used in the expression عَلَيْهِ صِدْعَةٌ مِنْ مَالٍ, especially of a small debt or amount owing.
- Lane · entry 25579
صَدَعَاتٌ
Divisions or disagreements in opinion and affection.
Used of divisions existing among people and of the divisions that should be repaired by restoring unity.
- Lane · entry 25580
صُدَاعٌ
Headache, understood metaphorically as a splitting sensation in the head caused by pain.
A noun for the condition, distinct from the causative Form II verb.
- Lane · entry 25581
صَدِيعٌ
A half of a garment or other piece split in two, or a garment that is slit or much rent.
Used especially of a رِدَاء or similar cloth; the form may also designate the split or rent piece itself.
- Lane · entry 25582
صَدِيعٌ
A new patch in an old garment, a black mourning garment, a garment worn beneath armor, or a middling-sized shirt.
These are specialized apparel usages of the same headword and are not reduced to the general sense of a crack.
- Lane · entry 25582
صَدِيعٌ
A youthful or middling-sized mountain-goat, or an animal between two sizes.
A specialized animal description related to the intermediate-size sense of صَدَعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25582
صَدِيعٌ
Daybreak, because it cleaves the night.
A figurative nominal use.
- Lane · entry 25582
صَدِيعٌ
Fresh milk that has cooled and become covered by a thin skin.
The name is explained by the removal or cleaving off of the thin skin from the clear milk.
- Lane · entry 25582
صَادِعٌ
Extending far along the earth, when applied to a valley, road, way, or mountain.
A figurative active-participial use.
- Lane · entry 25584
صَادِعٌ
Shining or bright, when applied to daybreak.
Equivalent to a bright or emerging dawn; distinct in headword from the noun صَدِيعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25584
صَادِعٌ
One who decides or judges between people or parties.
An active-participial application to a mediator or judge.
- Lane · entry 25584
أَصْدَعُهُمْ
The most effective or decisive among them in giving a right answer quickly.
A comparative or superlative expression concerning correctness and speed of judgment.
- Lane · entry 25585
مَصْدَعٌ
A smooth or plain road through rugged ground.
A place-noun or descriptive noun for a clearly passable route.
- Lane · entry 25586
مِصْدَعٌ
A type of arrowhead or arrow called مِشْقَص.
Plural مَصَادِعُ; the same form also occurs in the expression for a quiver that stores such arrows.
- Lane · entry 25587
مِصْدَعٌ
A guide who proceeds energetically along his way.
An agent noun with a figurative forceful or purposeful sense.
- Lane · entry 25587
مِصْدَعٌ
A perspicuous, eloquent, and bold orator or preacher.
An agent noun describing clarity and courage in speech.
- Lane · entry 25587
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The packet's integrity metadata reports 56 Lane primary source units, but the listed source_units enumerate 54; the ledger includes every source_unit actually supplied.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:SdE:25573:g2:main contains two additional Form II explanations, “Immisit” and “Rupit, perdidit,” explicitly presented as requiring consideration and therefore not assigned as established meanings.
lane-unit:SdE:25578:g2:main reports a صَدَعٌ sense as rust but explicitly treats it as probably mistaken amid competing readings.
lane-unit:SdE:25580:g2:main attributes a further explanation to Reiske involving swiftly moving camels without enough secure evidence to assign it confidently.
The packet metadata states 56 Lane primary source units although only 54 source_unit objects are present; no unlisted unit can be reconstructed.