Quranic root
بحر
b · ḥ · r
The root centers on breadth, spaciousness, and the extensive spread of water or other things.
From the idea of widening or spreading come the meanings of a sea or large body of water, ranging widely in pasture, wealth, or knowledge, and figurative abundance. Related developments include salinity and the wide slitting of an animal's ear.
- Maqāyīs · row 697
- Mufradāt · row 96
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 42
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَحِيرَةٌ
baḥīrahun
- Part of speech
- 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.
A consecrated animal, especially a she-camel whose ear had been slit and which was released from ordinary use under pre-Islamic custom.
The term could also apply to an ewe or she-goat. Accounts differ over whether the animal followed five, seven, or ten births and over the precise restrictions on riding, carrying, milk, meat, and pasture; the Quran rejects the institution in 5:103.
- Lane · entry 35647
- Mufradāt · row 96
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:103word 5
“a Bahirah”
بَحْرٌ
baḥrun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 41 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 sea or other extensive body of water; in a Quranic pairing, both salt and fresh bodies of water can be called seas.
The noun occurs in singular, dual, and plural forms and in descriptions of ordinary seas, paired waters, and vast or overwhelming waters.
- Lane · entry 35639
- Mufradāt · row 96
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:53word 4
“the two seas”
Quran 81:6word 2
“the seas”
A watered or cultivated region, settled country, or riverside towns.
This is the Quran-attested interpretive use of al-bahr in the expression al-barr wa-al-bahr in 30:41, where it is explained as fertile or watered countryside, settlements, or towns along rivers rather than the open sea alone.
- Lane · entry 35639
- Mufradāt · row 96
Selected Quran examples
Quran 30:41word 5
“and the sea”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:50ٱلْبَحْرَthe sea
- 2:164ٱلْبَحْرِthe sea
- 5:96ٱلْبَحْرِ(of) the sea
- 5:103بَحِيرَةٍۢa Bahirah
- 6:59وَٱلْبَحْرِ ۚand in the sea
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 27 Classical meanings
بَحَرَ
To slit, cleave, or divide lengthwise; especially to slit an animal's ear widely.
The ear-slitting use underlies the noun بَحِيرَةٌ, but the verb may describe cutting or cleaving more generally.
- Lane · entry 35634
بَحُرَ
To become wide or spacious.
- Lane · entry 35634
أَبْحَرَ
To embark or voyage upon the sea or a great river.
- Lane · entry 35636
أَبْحَرَ
Of water, to become salty and difficult or unpleasant to drink.
- Lane · entry 35636
أَبْحَرَتِ الأَرْضُ
Of land, to abound in places where water stagnates.
- Lane · entry 35636
أَبْحَرَ
To meet someone unintentionally.
This meaning is reported in connection with the phrase لَقِيتُهُ صَحْرَةَ بَحْرَةَ.
- Lane · entry 35636
تَبَحَّرَ
To range widely or become abundant in pasture, wealth, or knowledge; to become deeply versed in a field.
The construction may describe a pastor ranging through abundant grazing, a person becoming ample in wealth or possessions, or someone extending deeply into knowledge.
- Lane · entry 35637
اِسْتَبْحَرَ
To become wide or expanded; figuratively, to expatiate or become diffuse in speech.
The verb is used of places that spread widely and of a poet, speaker, or orator who ranges expansively in expression.
- Lane · entry 35638
بَحْرٌ
A great river whose water flows continuously.
The term can be applied to major sweet-water rivers as well as to the sea.
- Lane · entry 35639
بَحْرٌ
In an idiom, a sea-like night associated with destruction or the approach of daybreak.
This is the figurative expression يَا هَادِيَ اللَّيْلِ جُرْتَ إِنَّمَا هُوَ البَحْرُ أَوِ الفَجْرُ.
- Lane · entry 35639
بَحْرٌ
Salt water; salty as an epithet applied to water.
This is a tropical or descriptive use distinguishing saline water from fresh water.
- Lane · entry 35639
بَحْرٌ
A person or thing exceptionally wide-ranging or abundant: a swift far-ranging horse, a generous man, or a man of extensive knowledge.
The noun is used metaphorically for breadth in running, generosity, knowledge, or another capacity.
- Lane · entry 35639
بَحْرُ الرَّحِمِ
The bottom or fundus of the womb.
The anatomical term is also shortened to البَحْرُ.
- Lane · entry 35639
بَحْرَةٌ
A broad tract of land, an open valley, or low and depressed ground.
- Lane · entry 35640
بَحْرَةٌ
A country, territory, town, or village, especially one associated with running water or wholesome water.
The word may refer broadly to a people's land or settlement and is also used of towns and villages.
- Lane · entry 35640
بَحْرَةٌ
A meadow or garden, especially one that is broad or spacious.
- Lane · entry 35640
بَحْرَةٌ
A place where water stagnates.
- Lane · entry 35640
صَحْرَةَ بَحْرَةَ
Face-to-face and out in the open, with nothing intervening or concealing either party.
The expression functions as an idiom of meeting in an exposed, unobstructed situation.
- Lane · entry 35640
- Mufradāt · row 96
بَحْرِيٌّ
Of, relating to, or belonging to the sea or a great river.
- Lane · entry 35642
بَحْرِيٌّ
A seaman or sailor.
The same derived form can function as a noun for a person associated with the sea.
- Lane · entry 35642
بَحْرِيٌّ
In the Egyptian dialect, northern or northward.
This regional directional use is attributed to the position of the Mediterranean Sea relative to Egypt.
- Lane · entry 35642
بُحْرَانٌ
The crisis or sudden turning point of an acute disease, including the beginning of recovery or a change for better or worse.
This is a post-classical medical term associated in the cited discussion with a fixed stage of illness.
- Lane · entry 35644
بَحْرَانِيٌّ
Menstrual or womb blood, especially blood described as abundant, thick, or intensely red.
The term is variously related to the bottom of the womb or to the abundance of the blood; the source records several traditional specifications.
- Lane · entry 35645
بَحْرَانِيٌّ
Intensely red.
This adjectival use may describe redness apart from the specific reference to menstrual or womb blood.
- Lane · entry 35645
بُحَيْرَةٌ
A small sea or lake.
- Lane · entry 35648
بَاحُورٌ
The intense heat of the month of Tammuz, approximately July.
The feminine form بَاحُورَاءُ is used with the same meaning.
- Lane · entry 35653
بَاحُورٌ
The moon.
- Lane · entry 35653
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The interpretation of al-bahr in Quran 30:41 varies between the literal sea and extended senses such as fertile regions, settlements, or towns beside rivers.
Descriptions of the pre-Islamic bahirah custom differ in the reported number of births and in the restrictions imposed on the animal.