Quranic root
بلع
b · l · ʿ
The root centers on swallowing or drawing something into oneself.
This ingesting image extends to things that take in water, such as drains and the opening of a pulley, and to related expressions of absorption or spreading. Specialized derivatives name the gullet, a gulp, and other objects associated with swallowing.
- Maqāyīs · row 838
- Mufradāt · row 156
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَلَعَ
balaʿa
- 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 swallow up, absorbing or taking something into oneself.
In the Quranic occurrence, the verb is an imperative addressed to the earth, with water as the object: the earth is commanded to take the water back into itself.
- Lane · entry 37087
- Mufradāt · row 156
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:44word 3
“Swallow”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 11:44ٱبْلَعِىSwallow
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 16 Classical meanings
بَلَعَ
In an idiomatic use, to swallow one’s spittle, meaning to restrain one’s anger.
A proverbial or figurative expression.
- Lane · entry 37087
بَلَّعَ
Of grayness or hoariness, to begin appearing or to spread over the head.
Used of the appearance and spread of gray hair.
- Lane · entry 37088
أَبْلَعَ
To make or enable someone to swallow something; by extension, to give someone time to swallow.
The expression أَبْلِعْنِي رِيقِي means “give me time to swallow my spittle.”
- Lane · entry 37089
بُلَعٌ
A voracious eater, one who swallows large mouthfuls or everything.
An epithet for a person; the evidence does not require a gender-specific restriction.
- Lane · entry 37093
سَعْدُ بُلَعَ
A lunar mansion consisting of two nearby stars.
A traditional proper name associated with the image of swallowing.
- Lane · entry 37093
بُلَعٌ
A hole or perforation in a pulley, especially in the pulley’s central frame or apparatus.
A technical noun; the form may also function as a collective or plural designation.
- Lane · entry 37093
بُلْعَةٌ
A gulp, or the amount of beverage swallowed at one time.
Comparable to a جرعة, a draught or measured swallow.
- Lane · entry 37094
بَلْعَمٌ
A person who eats much and swallows food vehemently.
An intensive descriptive epithet for a heavy or forceful eater.
- Lane · entry 37096
بُلْعُومٌ
The gullet or oesophagus, the passage through the throat for food.
The term can also be extended to the throat or fauces.
- Lane · entry 37098
بُلْعُومٌ
A torrent that enters and disappears into the earth.
Recorded specifically of a torrent entering ground of the type called قُفّ.
- Lane · entry 37098
بُلْعُومٌ
The whitish mark at the edge of an ass’s mouth or on its lip.
A specialized anatomical or descriptive use.
- Lane · entry 37098
بَلُوعٌ
A medicine taken by swallowing.
A substantivized noun for a swallowable medicinal preparation.
- Lane · entry 37099
بَلُوعٌ
A beverage, especially wine.
A substantivized use related to something drunk or swallowed.
- Lane · entry 37099
بَلُوعٌ
A wide cooking pot that takes in whatever is thrown into it.
A figurative or tropical description based on the pot’s capacity to “swallow” its contents.
- Lane · entry 37099
بَالُوعَةٌ
A sinkhole, drain, or hole into which water descends; also a narrow-headed well in a house that receives rainwater and the like.
A domestic drainage feature, especially one situated in the middle of a house.
- Lane · entry 37106
مُبْلَعَةٌ
A well lined with stones or baked bricks from the bottom to the rim.
A specialized noun for a constructed, masonry-lined well.
- Lane · entry 37109
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quran-attested surface form is the imperative ٱبْلَعِى addressed to the earth; the public headword is normalized to the Form I perfect بَلَعَ.
The traditional lunar-mansion entry for سَعْدُ بُلَعَ associates its name with the Quranic command concerning the earth and its water; that association is not treated as an additional Quran word occurrence.