Quranic root
طور
ṭ · w · r
The root's core orientation is extension through space or time, including the extent of a thing, the passage through successive phases, and the crossing of a proper boundary.
Spatial extension yields meanings such as a house's frontage, a proper limit, and a mountain's length and breadth; temporal extension yields repeated occasions and successive stages. The adjective for the wild or estranged is associated with moving beyond the bounds of settled society.
- Maqāyīs · row 3081
- Mufradāt · row 917
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 11
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
طَوْر
ṭawr
- Part of speech
- Noun · plural form attested as أَطْوَار
- 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 successive stage or phase in a process or development.
In وَقَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ أَطْوَارًا, the term can refer to successive stages of human creation, including the transitions from one developmental state to another.
- Lane · entry 11925
- Mufradāt · row 917
Selected Quran examples
Quran 71:14word 3
“(in) stages”
A distinct state, form, condition, mode, or disposition; being varied in constitution or character.
In the same Quranic construction, the plural can describe people as differing in form, creation, character, or condition rather than merely passing through temporal stages.
- Lane · entry 11925
- Mufradāt · row 917
Selected Quran examples
Quran 71:14word 3
“(in) stages”
طُور
ṭūr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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.
A mountain; specifically, the named Mount or Ṭūr referred to in Quranic passages.
The Quranic definite and construct forms refer to the Mount as a named or specially identified mountain, including the mountain associated with Moses in several passages; the lexical evidence also supports mountain as a broader appellative rather than restricting every occurrence to one modern place-name.
- Lane · entry 11926
- Mufradāt · row 917
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:63ٱلطُّورَthe mount
- 2:93ٱلطُّورَthe mount
- 4:154ٱلطُّورَthe mount
- 19:52ٱلطُّورِ(of) the Mount
- 20:80ٱلطُّورِ(of) the Mount
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 8 Classical meanings
طَارَ
To go or hover around something; to draw near to or approach it.
Used for circling or hovering around a person or place and in negative constructions meaning not to approach someone's immediate vicinity or environs.
- Lane · entry 11923
طَوْر
A time, occasion, or period; a recurrence from one time to another.
Appears in expressions such as طَوْرًا بَعْدَ طَوْرٍ, meaning time after time or period after period.
- Lane · entry 11925
طَوْر
A proper measure, extent, or limit; the bounds appropriate to a person or thing.
Used in expressions for exceeding or transgressing one's proper extent, limit, state, or condition.
- Lane · entry 11925
طَوْر
Something commensurate, equal, corresponding, or coextensive with another thing.
Can describe equality in dimensions, length and breadth, correspondence, or contiguous alignment.
- Lane · entry 11925
طَوْر / طُور
The part of a house's exterior court or yard that extends along or is coextensive with the house.
Refers to the house's adjoining frontage or the portion of its open yard corresponding to the building.
- Lane · entry 11925
- Lane · entry 11926
- Mufradāt · row 917
طُورِيّ / طُورَانِيّ
Wild, untamed, or estranged from settled people; a stranger.
Applied to wild birds, desert Arabs who avoid towns, and persons regarded as outsiders. In مَا بِهَا طُورِيٌّ, it forms an idiomatic negative expression meaning that there is no person or occupant present.
- Lane · entry 11929
أَطْوَرَيْهِ
The two extremes or the utmost extent of something; its full range or highest point.
Used of reaching the beginning and end, the utmost point of learning, or the utmost of one's endeavor, and of encountering the extremes of fortune.
- Lane · entry 11932
الأَطْوَرِينَ
To suffer calamity or harsh treatment from someone or something.
In لَقِيَ مِنْهُ الأَطْوَرِينَ, the expression means that a person experienced adversity or calamity at another's hands.
- Lane · entry 11932
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic construction وَقَدْ خَلَقَكُمْ أَطْوَارًا has two explicitly attested interpretations: successive developmental stages and differing forms or conditions; both are retained.
طُور is described both as a specific named mountain and as a mountain appellative. The Quranic evidence therefore does not require every occurrence to be identified with one modern place-name.