Quranic root
طحو
ṭ · ḥ · w
The root centers on spreading, extending, and laying something out.
From physical spreading and extension, Classical usage develops related senses of being carried away or propelled, lying extended on the ground, and describing expansive or numerous formations.
- Maqāyīs · row 3002
- Mufradāt · row 890
- 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.
طَحَا
ṭaḥā
- 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 spread or extend outward; in the Quranic occurrence, to spread out the earth.
Transitive in the attested verse, with the earth as object. The Quranic spelling is طَحَىٰ in the supplied occurrence; طَحَا and طَحَى are reported as dialectal variants.
- Mufradāt · row 890
- Lane · entry 11058
Selected Quran examples
Quran 91:6word 3
“spread it”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 91:6طَحَىٰهَاspread it
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 13 Classical meanings
طَحَا
To repel or push one another.
A reciprocal or mutual use applied to a people or party.
- Lane · entry 11058
طَحَا
To become spread, extended, or stretched; to throw or prostrate someone face-down, to lie stretched on the ground, or to stick to the ground.
Includes intransitive physical-state uses and constructions describing a person, a camel, or someone lying or sleeping extended on the ground.
- Lane · entry 11058
طَحَا
To go away into the land; to carry or drive someone or something away, or propel it onward; figuratively, to carry a person into pursuit or a far-reaching course.
Includes uses of the heart or anxiety carrying someone away, and the transitive expression for throwing a ball.
- Lane · entry 11058
طَحَى
To become fat.
Attested in a phrase describing a person's fatness.
- Lane · entry 11058
طَحَا
To be or become distant or remote.
An intransitive Classical Arabic use.
- Lane · entry 11058
طَحًا
An expanded tract of land.
Nominal usage.
- Lane · entry 11061
طَحَى
The lower, baser, or basest of mankind or the people.
An attributed and apparently uncertain lexical usage, reported with the spelling طَحَى.
- Lane · entry 11061
طَحْيَةٌ
A portion of clouds.
A nominal designation; the closely resembling form طَخْيَةٌ is also reported.
- Lane · entry 11062
طَاحٍ
Spread out, expansive, or filling everything by its multitude; applied to an army or to a great spreading tent.
An adjectival use describing extensive spread or abundance.
- Lane · entry 11065
الطَّوَاحِي
Vultures circling in the sky around the bodies of the slain.
A conventional plural expression describing circling vultures.
- Lane · entry 11065
طَاحٍ
High, elevated, or lofty.
Attested in the oath-expression “by the high moon.”
- Lane · entry 11065
طَاحٍ
A great congregated body of men.
A nominalized or substantivized use referring to a large assembled multitude.
- Lane · entry 11065
مُطَحٍّ
Spread, expanded, or extended; thrown face-down or lying and stretching face-down on the ground, and cleaving or sticking to it; of a plant, spreading over the surface of the earth.
An adjectival derived-form usage covering both prone or ground-adhering subjects and vegetation spreading along the ground.
- Lane · entry 11068
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
طَحَا and طَحَى are reported as dialectal variants, while the supplied Quran occurrence is طَحَىٰ.
The طَحْيَائِهِ passage is not assigned as a root meaning because the source itself indicates that the expression probably belongs to طَخْيَاء.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:THw:11063:g1:main: its reported rutting-time interpretation is explicitly suspected to be a miswritten form from another lexical entry and cannot be confidently assigned to طحو.