Quranic root
طبق
ṭ · b · q
The root centers on placing something broad upon its like so that it covers, fits, or corresponds to it.
From covering and superimposition develop the meanings of layers, matching and conformity, comprehensive coverage, successive states, and several specialized bodily, practical, and figurative uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 2988
- Mufradāt · row 889
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
طَبَقٌ
ṭabaqun
- Part of speech
- Noun · Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
Layered or arranged one above another; a superimposed tier or level.
In the Quran, طِبَاقًا describes the seven heavens as placed one above another. The form is used adjectivally or as a descriptive plural/collective expression.
- Lane · entry 10950
- Mufradāt · row 889
Selected Quran examples
Quran 67:3word 5
“one above another”
Quran 71:15word 8
“(in) layers”
A successive state, stage, or condition; one phase following another.
In لَتَرْكَبُنَّ طَبَقًا عَنْ طَبَقٍ, the expression denotes successive states or stages, especially the changing conditions encountered by human beings.
- Lane · entry 10950
- Mufradāt · row 889
Selected Quran examples
Quran 84:19word 2
“(to) stage”
Quran 84:19word 4
“stage”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 4 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 84 Classical meanings
طَبَقَ
Reportedly, to cover or put a cover upon something.
A Form I transitive usage attributed to one authority but explicitly disputed by the lexical source; retained as a qualified Classical report.
- Lane · entry 10941
طَبِقَ / يَدٌ طَبِقَةٌ
Of an arm or hand, to remain stuck to the side and unable to stretch forth.
Applied specifically to an arm or hand in the cited expressions.
- Lane · entry 10941
- Lane · entry 10953
طَبِقَ
To set about or begin doing something.
A Form I usage equivalent to طَفِقَ in the cited construction.
- Lane · entry 10941
طَبَقٌ
A thing equal to another in measure and broad enough to cover it; hence a cover or lid.
The primary nominal sense includes a jar cover or lid and the relation of a matching object to what it covers.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A dish, plate, tray, or household utensil on which food or fruit is placed or in which it is eaten.
A concrete utensil sense, distinct from the general sense of a covering lid.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ / طِبَاقٌ
A covering or extent upon the earth; what lies over or spreads across its surface.
Used of the earth’s surface or something extending over it in general.
- Lane · entry 10950
- Lane · entry 10954
طَبَقٌ
The exterior covering or outer part of the female pudendum.
A specialized anatomical usage explicitly treated as a covering metaphor.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A fold, ply, or overlapping part of a thing.
Refers to a superimposed or folded portion rather than a separate cover object.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A roller or successive swell of the sea.
A figurative maritime usage attributed through a cited lexical cross-reference.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
The thin bone or cartilage separating two vertebrae; in some accounts, a vertebra or the vertebrae collectively.
A specialized anatomical sense with variant descriptions in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
One of the successively superimposed cartilaginous divisions of the windpipe.
A specialized anatomical application of the notion of layered parts.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A stage or level of Hell, conceived as one tier above or covering another.
A Classical religious usage mentioned separately from the Quranic description of the heavens.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A bone or plate of the head, especially the interlocking bones that form its covering.
A specialized anatomical plural usage.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A joint of a limb.
A bodily-joint sense distinct from the vertebral separator.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A collective group or multitude of people or locusts; also a company equal to another company.
The grouping is understood as covering or occupying an extent, or as matching another group.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A generation, people of one time, or succession of one people after another; also a period of time.
The cited descriptions include a generation, a people after a people, and in some accounts a period such as twenty years.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
Rain that covers or reaches the whole land, especially widespread or continuously recurring rain.
Used of rain whose extent is general over the land or whose falls are lasting and consecutive.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A substantial portion or period of the night or day.
A temporal portion sense, including the main or commensurate hours of a period.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَقٌ
A succession in which persons, animals, or events follow one another.
Used of camels arriving in one line and of sheep or goats giving birth successively.
- Lane · entry 10950
أَطْبَاقٌ
People who are remote or remotely connected.
A plural idiomatic usage in the cited eschatological report.
- Lane · entry 10950
بِنْتُ طَبَقٍ
A female tortoise, named for the covering shell of its back.
A conventional animal appellation.
- Lane · entry 10950
بَنَاتُ طَبَقٍ / أُمُّ طَبَقٍ
A calamity; the expressions may also denote a serpent or serpents, associated with coiling or enclosing.
The idiomatic calamity sense and the serpent appellation are both reported in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 10950
طَبَّقَ
To cover or spread over an area, as clouds over the space between heaven and earth or water over the face of the land.
Form II causative usage involving a covering that extends over a surface.
- Lane · entry 10942
طَبَّقَ
To make something general or common throughout its range; to include the whole extent.
Used transitively of rain or another thing whose effect reaches the whole land.
- Lane · entry 10942
طَبَّقَ
To make one thing suit, match, tally, conform, correspond, or agree with another.
Form II usage of making a relation of correspondence or fit.
- Lane · entry 10942
طَبَّقَ بَيْنَ
To put two things together face to face.
A construction specifying juxtaposition or matched facing surfaces.
- Lane · entry 10942
التَّطْبِيقُ
The ritual placement of the hands together between the thighs while bowing or during tashahhud in prayer.
A technical prayer term; the cited evidence also records that this practice was considered forbidden in favor of placing the hands on the knees.
- Lane · entry 10942
طَبَّقَ
Of a horse or camel, to raise and set down the forefeet together, or to leap and land with the legs together.
A specialized description of an animal’s gait.
- Lane · entry 10942
طَبَّقَتِ الإِبِلُ
Of camels, to travel a road without deviating from the straight direction.
An intransitive usage applied to camels following the direct course.
- Lane · entry 10942
طَبَّقَ
To strike a joint accurately with a sword, severing the limb or falling between two bones.
The verb may occur with the joint understood or specified.
- Lane · entry 10942
- Lane · entry 10944
- Lane · entry 10965
طَبَّقَ
To hit upon the right course, argument, proof, or mode of judgment; to act with accurate judgment.
A figurative extension from striking the joint accurately; also used of a skilled person.
- Lane · entry 10942
- Lane · entry 10944
- Lane · entry 10965
طَابَقَ
To place one thing upon or over another in a commensurate way, or to put one layer over another.
Form III usage includes placing another sole on a sandal and putting one garment over another.
- Lane · entry 10943
طَابَقَ
To suit, match, tally, conform, correspond, or agree with something; to be equal or alike in measure, size, or quantity.
Includes relations such as an answer matching a question.
- Lane · entry 10943
طَابَقَ
To comply with another’s desire or become submissive to the one making the demand.
The lexical evidence applies the construction to a spouse, woman, or she-camel without making that object class part of the definition.
- Lane · entry 10943
طَابَقَ لِـ
To obey with respect to another’s due, or willingly acknowledge and hasten to render it.
A construction with لِـ referring to a right or due owed to someone.
- Lane · entry 10943
طَابَقَ عَلَى
To join or aid another in doing an undertaking.
A construction with عَلَى expressing cooperation or assistance in an action.
- Lane · entry 10943
طَابَقَ عَلَى
To become accustomed, habituated, or inured to work.
A construction with عَلَى referring to the work or activity to which one becomes accustomed.
- Lane · entry 10943
مُطَابَقَةٌ
Of a horse or camel, to place the hind feet in the footprints of the forefeet.
A specialized animal-gait sense distinct from the Form II description of simultaneous footfall.
- Lane · entry 10943
مُطَابَقَةٌ
To walk as though shackled, with short steps.
A figurative gait description derived from constrained or closely matched foot placement.
- Lane · entry 10943
أَطْبَقَ
To cover something or put a cover, lid, or upper layer upon it.
Form IV includes covering a jar and placing the upper millstone upon the lower one.
- Lane · entry 10944
أَطْبَقَ عَلَى
To cover, overwhelm, or remain continuously upon someone or something, as insanity obscuring reason or fever not leaving the sufferer.
A figurative construction with عَلَى; the evidence includes both obscuring the intellect and continual illness.
- Lane · entry 10944
- Lane · entry 10962
- Lane · entry 10963
أَطْبَقَ عَلَى
To agree together or unite in consent concerning an affair.
A plural or collective construction expressing common agreement.
- Lane · entry 10944
أَطْبَقَ عَلَيْهِ
To come round about someone.
A construction with عَلَيْهِ describing surrounding or closing in upon a person.
- Lane · entry 10944
أَطْبَقَتْ عَلَيْهِ
Of a serpent, to wind or coil itself round someone.
An animal application of enclosing or wrapping around.
- Lane · entry 10944
أَطْبَقَتِ النُّجُومُ
Of the stars, to appear in abundance or in successive tiers.
The evidence explains the expression through the image of stars arranged stage above stage.
- Lane · entry 10944
أَطْبَقَ
To bring a part of the tongue close against the corresponding part of the palate in articulation.
A technical phonetic construction; it underlies the classification of ص, ض, ط, and ظ as emphatic or covered letters.
- Lane · entry 10944
- Lane · entry 10962
أَطْبَقَ العَذَابَ
To cause punishment to fall universally upon a people so that none escape.
A figurative Form IV construction of comprehensive coverage.
- Lane · entry 10944
أَطْبَقَ
To close or shut, and by extension to fold or bring a thing together.
Used of a door, lips, a book, or a garment; the command to close the lips can imply silence.
- Lane · entry 10944
تَطَبَّقَ
To become or lie as a cover upon something.
Form V in the conditional expression of heaven becoming a cover over earth.
- Lane · entry 10945
تَطَابَقَ
For two things to suit, match, tally, correspond, or agree with each other.
Form VI reciprocal usage; it also extends to collective agreement about an affair by cross-reference.
- Lane · entry 10946
اِنْطَبَقَ
To become covered or have a cover put upon it.
Form VII, characterized in the lexical evidence as quasi-passive of أَطْبَقَ.
- Lane · entry 10947
اِنْطَبَقَ
To become closed, as a door or similar opening.
An intransitive extension of becoming covered or shut.
- Lane · entry 10947
يَنْطَبِقُ عَلَيْهِ الكَلَامُ
For speech to be closed off against someone, leaving the person impeded or tongue-tied.
A figurative construction describing difficulty in speaking.
- Lane · entry 10947
يَنْطَبِقُ عَلَى
To apply to, fit, or be applicable to a thing or subject.
A figurative construction used of a rule or statement and its subject matter.
- Lane · entry 10947
طَبْقٌ
Wrongdoing or injury carried out by false pretence or false allegation.
A rare nominal usage attributed to a named authority in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 10948
طِبْقٌ
A match, equal, counterpart, or thing corresponding to another in measure, size, quantity, or kind.
The noun is used in constructions identifying one thing as the equivalent or counterpart of another.
- Lane · entry 10949
طِبْقٌ
A space or period of the day or night; a while or stretch of time.
A temporal noun with several reported plural and variant forms.
- Lane · entry 10949
طِبْقٌ
Birdlime or another adhesive substance used to make things stick.
Includes the substance applied to a pearl’s exterior lamina so that it adheres to or resembles it.
- Lane · entry 10949
طِبْقٌ
Snares or devices used to catch birds.
A plural or collective application to bird-catching traps.
- Lane · entry 10949
طِبْقٌ
A road or way.
A separately recorded nominal meaning with limited lexical authority in the supplied evidence.
- Lane · entry 10949
طِبْقٌ
Permission or leave.
Reported only on the authority of the cited source and explicitly noted as lacking corroboration in the lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 10949
طَبَقَةٌ
Any one of two or more things placed one above another; a layer, stratum, stage, story, or floor.
The feminine noun also extends to portions or levels formed by superimposition.
- Lane · entry 10952
طَبَقَاتُ العَيْنِ
The coats or layers of the eye.
A specialized anatomical plural of the layer sense.
- Lane · entry 10952
طَبَقَاتُ النَّاسِ
The degrees, ranks, orders, or classes of people.
A social classification usage derived from ordered levels or strata.
- Lane · entry 10952
طَبَقَةٌ
Consecutive or successive items, especially letters or written communications occurring one after another.
The cited phrase describes letters or epistles as consecutive; the meaning is not restricted to a particular object class.
- Lane · entry 10952
طَبَقَةٌ
A portion or tract of land.
A specialized geographical use comparing the portion to a defined layer or section.
- Lane · entry 10952
طَبَاقَاءُ
Of a camel, unable or lacking strength to perform covering or mating.
A specialized animal description; the lexical evidence also records variant explanations of the inability.
- Lane · entry 10956
طَبَاقَاءُ
Of a man, impeded in speech or action, dull or foolish, or unable to perform intercourse.
The lexical discussion records several attributed explanations, including tongue-tiedness, impotence, heaviness, and obscured understanding; these are not imposed as simultaneous requirements.
- Lane · entry 10956
طَبَاقَاءً
Collectively or all together against someone.
Used in the expression for people gathering together against a person.
- Lane · entry 10956
طُبَّاقٌ
A mountain plant with healing and dressing uses.
A botanical noun for the described species growing in the mountains around Mecca.
- Lane · entry 10957
طَابَقٌ
A large brick, baked brick, tile, or flat slab of baked clay, stone, or glass.
An arabicized material noun, distinct from the native root meanings of covering and matching.
- Lane · entry 10958
طَابَقٌ
A metal cooking vessel, such as a frying pan.
An arabicized utensil term for an iron or copper vessel.
- Lane · entry 10958
طَابَقٌ
A plate or flat piece of metal.
A material-object sense related to the arabicized flat slab term.
- Lane · entry 10958
طَابَقٌ
A projecting edge or ledge within a well.
Used in the expression for a well containing such projections.
- Lane · entry 10958
طَابَقٌ
A limb or member of the human body; in other usage, a half or serving portion of a sheep or goat.
The lexical evidence records both the bodily-member sense and the food-portion sense.
- Lane · entry 10958
طَابِقِيَّةٌ
A way of arranging a turban without winding part of it beneath the chin.
A named style of turban arrangement, reported as forbidden in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 10960
مُطْبَقٌ
Covered or having a cover placed upon it.
Passive participle of Form IV.
- Lane · entry 10962
مُطْبَقٌ عَلَيْهِ
Affected by a swoon or fit of insensibility.
A participial construction describing a person overcome by loss of consciousness.
- Lane · entry 10962
بَيْتٌ مُطْبَقٌ
A verse whose first hemistich ends in the middle of a word.
A specialized poetic and metrical term.
- Lane · entry 10962
مُطْبِقٌ
Covering or extending over something.
Active participle of Form IV, used literally and figuratively.
- Lane · entry 10963
مُطْبِقَةٌ
A hard or severe year.
An elliptical feminine expression for a year marked by sustained hardship.
- Lane · entry 10963
مُطْبِقَاتٌ
Calamities or overwhelming misfortunes.
A plural figurative extension of things that cover or overwhelm.
- Lane · entry 10963
مُطْبِقٌ
A subterranean prison or place of confinement beneath the ground.
The lexical discussion suggests that this may be postclassical or textually uncertain.
- Lane · entry 10963
مُطَبِّقٌ
Extending generally over a tract; covering the whole area.
Used of locusts spread across a region and of a cloud raining over an entire land.
- Lane · entry 10965
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic group combines طِبَاقًا, used descriptively for superimposed heavens, with طَبَقًا, used in the expression for successive stages; the public headword is normalized to طَبَقٌ.
One Form I transitive report and the permission sense are explicitly qualified or weakly attested in the lexical evidence.
The Form IV entry contains an unresolved statement referring to an omitted or unclear form; it is recorded as ambiguous rather than assigned speculatively.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:Tbq:10963:g1:sub5 contains a lexical-looking statement that مُطْبِقٌ may have the same meaning as an omitted or unidentified form. The intended meaning cannot be assigned confidently from the supplied text.