Quranic root
طوي
ṭ · w · y
The root centers on folding or inserting one thing into another, with extensions to enclosure, compactness, disappearance, and passage.
From the basic image of folding, the lexicon develops meanings such as something being enclosed or concealed, becoming compact or lean, passing away, and related constructions involving a folded or lined structure.
- Maqāyīs · row 3088
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- 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.
طَوَى
ṭawā
- 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 fold, roll up, or fold together.
In the Quranic passage, the object is the heaven; the action is presented through the image of folding a written scroll.
- Lane · entry 12033
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:104word 2
“We will fold”
To efface, bring to an end, or destroy.
An interpretive Quranic extension of the folding image in the passage about the heaven; it is distinct from the literal image of folding or rolling up.
- Lane · entry 12033
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:104word 2
“We will fold”
طَيٌّ
ṭayyun
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Folding or rolling up.
Used in the Quran in the construction “like the folding of the scroll,” describing the manner of the heavens' folding.
- Lane · entry 12033
- Lane · entry 12041
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:104word 4
“like (the) folding”
طُوًى
ṭuwan
- Part of speech
- Noun · place name or verbal 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.
Tuwa, the name of a valley or place.
Used as the name of the place in which Moses is addressed in the Quranic passages.
- Lane · entry 12046
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:12word 9
“(of) Tuwa”
Quran 79:16word 6
“(of) Tuwa”
Twice or doubly sanctified or called.
A Quranic interpretation of طُوًى as a verbal noun rather than a place name; the repeated action is explained as twice sanctifying or twice calling.
- Lane · entry 12046
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:12word 9
“(of) Tuwa”
Quran 79:16word 6
“(of) Tuwa”
مَطْوِيٌّ
maṭwiyyun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Folded, rolled up, or folded together.
In the Quranic expression, the heavens are described as being folded or rolled up.
- Lane · entry 12059
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:67word 12
“(will be) folded”
Destroyed or brought to an end.
An interpretive Quranic reading of the heavenly folding as destruction or annihilation.
- Lane · entry 12059
- Mufradāt · row 922
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:67word 12
“(will be) folded”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 20:12طُوًۭى(of) Tuwa
- 21:104نَطْوِىWe will fold
- 21:104كَطَىِّlike (the) folding
- 39:67مَطْوِيَّـٰتٌۢ(will be) folded
- 79:16طُوًى(of) Tuwa
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 49 Classical meanings
طَوَى
To make something compact or rounded, as though folded.
A figurative or extended use applied to bodies and limbs.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى
To render lean, lank, slender, or light of flesh.
Used of a person or body made lean by travel or another cause; the evidence does not impose a narrower object-class restriction.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى عُنُقَهُ
To bend or fold the neck.
A conventional description of a gazelle bending its neck before lying down safely.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى كَشْحَهُ
To turn away in affection, withdraw one's countenance, or forsake someone.
A figurative construction involving the folding or turning of the flank.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى
To conceal an affair, story, or secret, keeping it inwardly.
Used with an affair, story, secret, or similar matter as its object.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى كَشْحَهُ عَلَى أَمْرٍ
To determine or resolve upon an affair, or persevere in it.
An extended idiomatic construction; the source records determination and perseverance as lexical explanations distinct from concealment.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى
To suffer hunger intentionally or go without food by purpose.
An intransitive or specially construed use associated with intentionally withholding food.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى
To pass from one matter, interval, or station to another without stopping.
Applied to passing from one story to another, from one fast to the next, or from one stopping place to another.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى البِلَادَ
To travel through or traverse regions, country after country.
A travel construction with places or countries as the object.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى القَوْمَ
To come to, pass by, or sit among a people or party.
The construction may denote approaching people, passing them, or sitting at their dwelling place.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى اللهُ البُعْدَ
To contract or shorten a distance, bringing a remote thing near.
A causative construction with distance or remoteness as its object.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى
To cause life or something else to pass away, come to an end, or be brought to nought.
Used of causing a person's life to pass away and, more generally, of causing something to end or be destroyed.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى الغَزْلَ
To wind spun thread onto a winder.
Used with spun thread as the object.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَى الرَّكِيَّةَ
To case or line a well with stones or baked bricks.
The verb is also extended to casing bricks in a building.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوِيَ السِّقَاءُ
Of a water or milk skin, to become spoiled and disintegrated after being folded while still moist.
The moisture or milk remaining in the folded skin causes alteration, odor, and putrefaction.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوِيَ
To be hungry.
An intransitive use, distinct from the causative or intentional-hunger construction.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوِيَتْ طِيَّتُهُ
For the destination toward which someone intended to go to become remote.
A conventional expression about a person's intended destination or direction.
- Lane · entry 12033
طَوَّى
To fold something with several or many foldings, or to wind or coil it.
Form II expresses the repeated or intensive folding action.
- Lane · entry 12034
تَطَوَّى
To become folded with many foldings, wound, or coiled.
Used especially of a serpent winding or coiling itself.
- Lane · entry 12036
تَطَاوَى
To fold together mutually.
A reciprocal or collective use said of several agents or things.
- Lane · entry 12037
اِنْطَوَى
To become folded, folded up, folded together, or rolled up.
The intransitive or quasi-passive counterpart of folding.
- Lane · entry 12038
اِنْطَوَى بَطْنُهُ
For the belly to become lean or lank.
An extended bodily use attested of animals and similar subjects.
- Lane · entry 12038
اِنْطَوَى عَلَى
To harbor or conceive rancour, malice, love, or affection in the heart.
The emotional object is represented as being folded inwardly in the heart.
- Lane · entry 12038
طَيٌّ
The lines, streaks, creases, or folds of a garment, writing, belly, fat, guts, serpent, or similar thing.
The plural and related forms may denote repeated folds or crease-like bands in different materials and bodies.
- Lane · entry 12041
طَيٌّ
What is enclosed, included, or contained within the folds of writing; figuratively, what is held inwardly in the heart or consigned to oblivion.
A figurative extension from physical folds to concealed contents or inwardly held matters.
- Lane · entry 12041
طَيٌّ
A casing or lining of stones or baked bricks, especially the casing of a well.
A substantive nominal use rather than the ordinary verbal noun of folding.
- Lane · entry 12041
طِيَّةٌ
A mode or manner of folding, or of being folded.
The form may denote the manner or quality of the folding action rather than one individual fold.
- Lane · entry 12044
طِيَّةٌ
An intended destination, direction, aim, purpose, or object of want.
Used for the place toward which one purposes repairing as well as for an intended aim or need.
- Lane · entry 12044
آخِرُ طِيَّةٍ
The final stage, limit, or last interval.
A fixed expression synonymous with the final point or last extent.
- Lane · entry 12044
طَوًى
A water or milk skin, especially one spoiled after being folded while moist.
The noun may be used generally for the skin and specifically for the deteriorated folded skin.
- Lane · entry 12045
طَوًى
Hunger.
A nominal use related to the state of being hungry.
- Lane · entry 12045
طَوَى البَطْنِ
To be lean or lank in the belly.
An adjectival bodily description of leanness in the belly.
- Lane · entry 12048
طَوَى البَطْنِ
Hungry or having eaten nothing.
A bodily adjective describing hunger or an unfed condition.
- Lane · entry 12048
طَوِيٌّ
A bundle of cloths, stuffs, or garments folded together.
The name is motivated by the items being folded together.
- Lane · entry 12049
طَوِيٌّ
A well cased with stones or baked bricks.
A substantive noun; the form is grammatically masculine but may be treated as feminine when understood as a well.
- Lane · entry 12049
طَوِيٌّ
A short portion or interval of the night.
Used in the expression for coming after a short part of the night.
- Lane · entry 12049
طَوِيَّةٌ
The heart, mind, or inward disposition.
A figurative use based on a secret being folded within it.
- Lane · entry 12050
طُوَوِيٌّ
In a disputed expression, a person or occupant: “there is no one in the house.”
The lexical reading is explicitly reported as uncertain and may involve a textual or transcriptional problem.
- Lane · entry 12051
طَايَةٌ
A level platform or roof, including a place where dates are laid out to dry.
The sources give the roof/platform and date-drying place as related uses of a level surface.
- Lane · entry 12054
طَايَةٌ
A large rock in sandy or otherwise stoneless ground.
A separate geographical or topographical use.
- Lane · entry 12054
طَايَةٌ
A herd or group of camels.
The plural expression denotes camels arriving in herds; the singular is طَايَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 12054
طَاوٍ
A gazelle that bends or has bent its neck before lying down safely.
A specialized participial description of the gazelle's posture.
- Lane · entry 12055
طَاوِي الكَشْحِ
Lean or lank, not large in the sides.
An adjectival bodily description.
- Lane · entry 12055
طَاوِيٌّ
A poem whose fundamental rhyme letter is ط.
A technical use in the terminology of poetic rhyme.
- Lane · entry 12056
مَطْوًى
The folding of a garment or cloth, the place where it is folded, or its inside.
The form functions both as a verbal noun and as a noun for the folded or inward part.
- Lane · entry 12057
مِطْوًى
A winder or device on which spun thread is wound.
The instrumental noun is distinct from the verbal noun of folding.
- Lane · entry 12058
مِطْوًى
In popular usage, a small clasp-knife.
A colloquial use, commonly pronounced مَطْوَى without tanwin.
- Lane · entry 12058
مَطْوِيٌّ
Made compact or rounded as though folded, or possibly lean, lank, or slender in build.
A classical figurative specialization; the evidence records both compact/rounded and lean/slender interpretations.
- Lane · entry 12059
مَطْوِيَّةٌ
A well lined or cased with stones or baked bricks.
A passive-participial noun used substantively for a lined well.
- Lane · entry 12059
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
طُوًى is presented with both the place-name interpretation and the reported interpretation “twice sanctified or called”; the evidence does not resolve the competing readings.
The Lane references to Quran passages use historical citation notation; no such notation has been converted into an unsupported modern verse location.
The expression طُوَوِيٌّ is retained as a rare, explicitly uncertain lexical report rather than treated as secure ordinary vocabulary.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The supplied Lane primary source-unit count is 71, and all 71 supplied primary source units are audited in lane_unit_coverage; no additional unit identifier is reconstructed.
The exact lexical status of طُوَوِيٌّ is uncertain because Lane itself suggests a possible transcriptional problem.