Quranic root
طمس
ṭ · m · s
Erasure or wiping away of a thing's visible trace, mark, or form.
The evidence extends this core from physical effacement to loss of light or sight, concealment, alteration of form, and related figurative uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 3060
- Mufradāt · row 912
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- 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.
طَمَسَ
ṭamasa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To efface, obliterate, or remove a trace, mark, writing, or other visible form; also to become effaced and lose one's visible form.
Used transitively when a visible trace or form is removed, and intransitively or passively when the thing itself becomes obliterated. Destruction may be expressed as the result of removing the thing's trace or form.
- Lane · entry 11744
- Mufradāt · row 912
Selected Quran examples
Quran 77:8word 3
“are obliterated”
To deprive of sight or light; to blind or cause illumination to disappear.
Used especially of eyes or sight; the same loss-of-light conception can apply to a celestial body whose light is extinguished or no longer visible.
- Lane · entry 11744
- Mufradāt · row 912
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:66word 3
“We (would have) surely obliterated”
Quran 54:37word 5
“so We blinded”
To transform or alter a thing or person's form, condition, or outward appearance.
In the Quranic constructions concerning possessions and faces, the action is interpreted as changing or metamorphosing them, with destruction of possessions also reported as an interpretive result.
- Lane · entry 11744
- Mufradāt · row 912
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:88word 18
“Destroy”
Quran 4:47word 14
“We efface”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:47نَّطْمِسَWe efface
- 10:88ٱطْمِسْDestroy
- 36:66لَطَمَسْنَاWe (would have) surely obliterated
- 54:37فَطَمَسْنَآso We blinded
- 77:8طُمِسَتْare obliterated
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 11 Classical meanings
طُمُوسُ الْقَلْبِ
The heart's becoming bad, corrupt, or morally unsound.
A fixed expression describing a heart's deterioration.
- Lane · entry 11744
طَمَسَ
To become distant or remote, or to go far away.
An intransitive use describing a person's becoming distant or departing to a distance.
- Lane · entry 11744
طَمَسَ بِعَيْنِهِ
To look far away, or to look at something from afar.
Occurs in the construction طَمَسَ بِعَيْنِهِ.
- Lane · entry 11744
طَمَسَ الْمَكْتُوبَ
To cover writing by folding the written material over it.
A specialized use applied to a written document.
- Lane · entry 11744
طَمَسَ
To cover or conceal stars, as clouds or mist do, so that they are not seen or their light is obscured.
A figurative or extended construction describing atmospheric concealment.
- Lane · entry 11744
طَمَاسَةٌ
Conjecture or computation based on conjecture.
Also treated as an infinitive associated with the verb's conjectural use.
- Lane · entry 11744
- Lane · entry 11749
طَمْسٌ
Corruption, or the rendering of something bad or corrupt.
A lexical use equivalent to فساد, distinct from physical effacement.
- Lane · entry 11744
طَامِسٌ
Effaced or becoming effaced; said of a relic, remain, mark, trace, ruin, or dwelling whose visible remains are disappearing.
Also used of winds that repeatedly efface things.
- Lane · entry 11750
طَامِسٌ
Having lost sight or light; an eye or person that is blind, or a star whose light has gone or which is hidden.
Of a blind person, it may describe one whose eyelid edge or slit is not apparent; of stars, it can describe disappearance or concealment.
- Lane · entry 11750
طَامِسٌ
Distant or remote; indistinct from afar, or far-extending and pathless.
Applied to a mountain not plainly discernible at a distance and to a desert characterized by great extent and lack of paths.
- Lane · entry 11750
طَامِسُ الْقَلْبِ
Dead or corrupt in heart, or retaining nothing in the mind.
A figurative description of a person's inner state or deficient memory.
- Lane · entry 11750
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic transformation sense has several reported interpretations, including changing, metamorphosing, or destroying possessions and changing faces; these should not be treated as identical to ordinary physical erasure.