Quranic root
صغر
ṣ · gh · r
The root centers on smallness, paucity, and reduced standing: being little in size, amount, age, or degree, and being lowly or abased in rank.
The lexical range extends from physical or relative smallness to diminished estimation, low social standing, humiliation, and related causative or evaluative constructions.
- Maqāyīs · row 2797
- Mufradāt · row 836
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 13
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَصْغَرُ
ʾaṣgharu
- Part of speech
- Adjective · comparative
- 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.
Smaller or less; the lesser or least in comparison.
Used comparatively in constructions that contrast a thing with something larger, greater, or more extensive; the relevant comparison may concern amount, extent, or degree.
- Lane · entry 26025
- Mufradāt · row 836
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:61word 34
“smaller”
Quran 34:3word 24
“smaller”
صَاغِرٌ
ṣāghirun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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.
Being lowly, abject, humiliated, or disgraced; accepting or undergoing a degraded status.
Plural active-participle use for persons reduced to a low rank or subjected to abasement; in the Quranic occurrences it denotes humiliation or subjection rather than physical smallness.
- Lane · entry 26024
- Mufradāt · row 836
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:29word 29
“(are) subdued”
Quran 7:13word 13
“the disgraced ones”
Quran 27:37word 13
“(will be) abased”
صَغَارٌ
ṣaghārun
- 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.
Abasement, humiliation, lowliness, or ignominy.
An abstract noun denoting the state or result of being reduced in standing; the Quranic occurrence is the form independently identified at 6:124.
- Lane · entry 26015
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:124word 22
“a humiliation”
صَغِيرٌ
ṣaghīrun
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Small or little in amount, age, or relative measure or degree.
The adjective is relative to what it is compared with and may describe a small amount, childhood or young age, or a minor item or degree.
- Lane · entry 26021
- Mufradāt · row 836
Selected Quran examples
صَغِيرَةٌ
ṣaghīrahun
- Part of speech
- Adjective / noun
- 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.
Small or little, feminine.
Feminine adjective agreeing with the noun it qualifies; the Quranic occurrence at 9:121 uses the ordinary adjectival sense.
- Lane · entry 26021
- Mufradāt · row 836
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:121word 4
“small”
A small or minor matter or deed.
Substantive use in a paired enumeration with كَبِيرَةٌ, referring to a minor item or deed in the reckoning of what has been done; it is not restricted to a physically small object.
- Lane · entry 26022
- Mufradāt · row 836
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:49word 15
“a small”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:282صَغِيرًاsmall
- 6:124صَغَارٌa humiliation
- 7:13ٱلصَّـٰغِرِينَthe disgraced ones
- 7:119صَـٰغِرِينَhumiliated
- 9:29صَـٰغِرُونَ(are) subdued
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 17 Classical meanings
صَغُرَ / صَغِرَ
To be or become small or little; of a person, to be young or still a child.
The lexical contrast may concern bodily size, age, rank, or dignity; the verb also occurs in expressions meaning to be too small or young for something, or younger than another.
- Lane · entry 26010
صَغُرَ / صَغِرَ
To become vile, base, abased, or ignominious; to accept a lowly state or lose standing in people's eyes.
This is the low-status branch of the Form I verb, distinct from merely being small in size or age.
- Lane · entry 26010
صَغُرَتِ الشَّمْسُ
Of the sun, to incline toward setting.
A specialized Classical Arabic use.
- Lane · entry 26010
صَغَّرَ
To make something smaller or little; figuratively, to diminish its standing or render someone contemptible or base.
Causative use covering physical reduction and the figurative lowering of rank or dignity.
- Lane · entry 26011
أَصْغَرَتِ الأَرْضُ
Of land, to produce short or small plants or herbage.
Applied to pasture or land whose vegetation does not grow tall.
- Lane · entry 26012
أَصْغَرَ
In a pasture expression, to remain in spring pasture in order to produce or rear the young.
A specialized construction concerning the breeding or production of young animals.
- Lane · entry 26012
أَصْغَرَتِ النَّاقَةُ
Of a she-camel, to utter a low yearning cry to or for her young.
A specialized animal-related use, contrasted with the louder cry described by the corresponding opposite expression.
- Lane · entry 26012
تَصَاغَرَ
To become small, shrink, or contract, especially through fear or abasement.
May describe a reduction in apparent or personal stature rather than ordinary physical smallness.
- Lane · entry 26013
تَصَاغَرَ
To become vile, abject, contemptible, or of little importance in one's own estimation; also to display or feign abjectness.
Reflexive or affected abasement, including a person's considering himself lowly or insignificant.
- Lane · entry 26013
اِسْتَصْغَرَ
To count, reckon, or esteem a person or thing as small, inferior, contemptible, or young.
Evaluative construction taking an object as small or low in the speaker's estimation.
- Lane · entry 26014
صُغْرٌ / صَغَرٌ
Tyranny, oppression, or injury.
A broader Classical Arabic branch recorded alongside the meanings of vileness and abasement; it is separate from the Quranic abstract noun's attested humiliation sense.
- Lane · entry 26015
صِغْرَةٌ
The least or youngest member of a group; one of the little ones or young.
Used in possessive or group expressions, opposed to كِبْرَةٌ for the eldest or greatest.
- Lane · entry 26017
صَغِيرٌ
Small or little in bodily size or standing; a young one, including the young of an animal or a young growth.
Broader Classical Arabic coverage of the adjective's physical, social, and youngling uses beyond the specific Quranic contexts.
- Lane · entry 26021
صَاغِرٌ
Tyranny or injury associated with a condition of abasement.
A broader Classical Arabic extension recorded for صَاغِرٌ, kept distinct from the Quranic participial sense of being humiliated or reduced in rank.
- Lane · entry 26024
أَصْغَرُ
Smaller or least in bodily size, age, or rank.
Broader comparative and superlative use beyond the Quranic occurrences' particular comparisons.
- Lane · entry 26025
الأَصْغَرَانِ
The heart and the tongue.
A fixed, figurative dual expression in which the two are called “the two lesser things.”
- Lane · entry 26025
مُصْغِرَةٌ
Land bearing small plants or herbage that has not grown tall.
A specialized adjectival description of land or pasture.
- Lane · entry 26026
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic location for صَغَارٌ is taken from the independent QAC occurrence at 6:124; Lane's printed Quran citation is treated as lexical evidence and not mechanically converted from historical citation notation.
The Form IV pasture expression has an editorially noted wording problem in its transmitted explanation; its lexical content is retained cautiously as a construction concerning producing or rearing young.