Quranic root
بلد
b · l · d
The root is oriented toward the chest or a surface laid upon the ground, with related extensions to a settled place, remaining in a place, and states of clinging or disorientation.
The central image develops from the chest or something resting on the ground to a bounded land or locality. Further lexical extensions include abiding in a place, traces left upon a surface, bodily spaces, bewilderment, weakness, and dullness.
- Maqāyīs · row 830
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 19
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَلَدٌ
baladun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 14 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 bounded inhabited locality or territory: a city, town, country, or region.
The Quranic form may refer to a particular settled place, including Mecca, or more broadly to a country or region. Its plural بلاد may mean cities, lands, or countries collectively.
- Mufradāt · row 154
- Lane · entry 37054
Selected Quran examples
A tract of land, especially land described as barren, dead, or desert.
In the construction بلد ميت, the expression denotes land without productive vegetation; the noun can also be used for a desert or waterless tract.
- Mufradāt · row 154
- Lane · entry 37055
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:57word 15
“to a land”
بَلْدَةٌ
baldahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A bounded tract of land or locality; a land, territory, or city viewed as a particular place.
The form overlaps with بلد but can specify a particular portion or tract. In Quranic usage it describes land as good, dead, or associated with a city or territory.
- Mufradāt · row 154
- Lane · entry 37054
- Lane · entry 37057
Selected Quran examples
- Part of speech
- Quran occurrences
- 0 occurrences
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:126بَلَدًاa city
- 3:196ٱلْبِلَـٰدِthe land
- 7:57لِبَلَدٍۢto a land
- 7:58وَٱلْبَلَدُAnd the land
- 14:35ٱلْبَلَدَcity
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 46 Classical meanings
بَلَدَ
To remain, stay, abide, or dwell in a place, especially one adopted as one's country or residence.
The verb may be construed with a place and can carry the sense of keeping to it.
- Lane · entry 37049
بَلِدَ
To keep to the ground while fighting.
Used of combatants who remain on the ground in battle.
- Lane · entry 37049
بَلِدَ
To have marks or traces remain upon the skin.
The marks are described as أبلاد in the cited lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 37049
بَلِدَ، بُلْدَةٌ، أَبْلَدٌ
A clear space between the eyebrows, or eyebrows that are not joined.
The meaning is also used adjectivally of a person having this feature.
- Lane · entry 37049
- Lane · entry 37058
- Lane · entry 37063
بَلُدَ
To become stupid, dull, inert, or lacking in effective intelligence and vigor.
The verb can also describe softness, weakness, or lack of endurance.
- Lane · entry 37049
بَلِدَ، بَلَّدَ، بَلِيدٌ
Of an animal, to lag behind or fail to show briskness in running.
The evidence applies the usage especially to a horse and also to a camel that cannot be made lively by urging.
- Lane · entry 37049
- Lane · entry 37050
- Lane · entry 37060
بَلَّدَ
To remain or stay, or to cast oneself down upon the ground.
The act of lying down may be attributed to fatigue.
- Lane · entry 37050
بَلَّدَ
To become languid or deliberately lazy after having been brisk or lively.
This is a change of vigor or conduct rather than simple residence in a place.
- Lane · entry 37050
بَلَّدَ
To be weak or ineffective in work, generosity, or running.
The usage describes inability or deficient performance in the stated activity.
- Lane · entry 37050
بَلَّدَ
To be niggardly, avaricious, or unwilling to give generously.
This is a characterization of a person's liberality.
- Lane · entry 37050
بَلَّدَتِ السَّحَابَةُ
Of a cloud, to give no rain.
The construction is specifically predicated of clouds or a cloud.
- Lane · entry 37050
بَلَّدَ
To fail to apply oneself properly or effectively to anything.
The meaning concerns ineffective application or conduct.
- Lane · entry 37050
بَلَّدَتِ الجِبَالُ
To appear low or shortened in extent because of the darkness of night.
The usage is marked as figurative and is applied to mountains or regions as they appear to the observer.
- Lane · entry 37050
مُبَالَدَةٌ
Contending with another in combat with swords or staves.
The verbal noun denotes mutual fighting.
- Lane · entry 37051
أَبْلَدَ
To cleave or cling to the ground in submissiveness.
The form may also describe an animal that has become dull and cannot be made brisk.
- Lane · entry 37052
أَبْلَدَ
Of a beast, to become dull and unresponsive to attempts to make it lively.
The evidence specifically describes an animal that remains sluggish when put into motion.
- Lane · entry 37052
أَبْلَدَهُ مَكَانًا
To make someone keep to a place.
The construction takes a person as object and a place as the location to which he is made to adhere.
- Lane · entry 37052
أَبْلَدَ، مُبْلِدٌ
Of a watering-trough or tank, to become or be left abandoned, worn, and no longer used, so that it threatens to fall into ruin.
The abandonment may be described as resulting from time; the related adjective can also mean old when applied to such a structure.
- Lane · entry 37052
- Lane · entry 37064
تَبَلَّدَ
To obtain or exercise dominion over a country or town belonging to others.
The object is a بلد in the sense of a territory or locality.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
To alight or sojourn in a deserted country or place.
The cited construction evokes a place with no one present.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
To become confounded or perplexed and unable to see the right course.
The sense describes going back and forth in confusion, as though lost in a pathless desert.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
To fall to the ground because of weakness.
The construction presents weakness as the cause of falling.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
To become submissive and humble.
The sense is contrasted with being firm or self-possessed in hardship.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
To affect stupidity or dullness.
The form describes adopting or displaying the manner of a dull person.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
To turn over or clap the hands as an expression of grief, sorrow, regret, or perplexity.
The gesture is a figurative extension associated with distress; the cited Quran reference in the lexical source is retained only as reported evidence, not converted into a modern verse location.
- Lane · entry 37053
تَبَلَّدَ
Of dawn or daybreak, to shine or become bright.
This is an attributed lexical usage recorded as equivalent to تبلّج.
- Lane · entry 37053
بَلَدٌ
A tract serving as an abode or place of resort for animals or jinn, even when it contains no building.
This is a specialized extension of بلد as a place of habitation rather than necessarily a settled town.
- Lane · entry 37054
بَلَدٌ
Land that has not been dug or upon which fire has not been kindled.
The usage highlights land in an untouched state.
- Lane · entry 37055
بَلَدٌ
A house or dwelling.
This is reported as a dialectal usage, especially associated with Yemen, and may be grammatically treated like the feminine noun دار.
- Lane · entry 37055
بَلَدٌ
A burial ground, and according to one report a grave or sepulchre.
The evidence records both the burial-ground sense and the narrower reported sense of an individual grave.
- Lane · entry 37055
بَلَدٌ
Dust or earth.
This is a distinct material sense from بلد as a bounded locality.
- Lane · entry 37055
بَيْضَةُ البَلَدِ
The place where an ostrich lays and abandons its egg; in idiom, an ostrich egg symbolizes someone isolated, unparalleled, or exposed in the desert.
The phrase may be used in praise or blame and can describe separation from one's family or relations.
- Lane · entry 37055
بَلَدٌ
A trace, mark, or vestige of a dwelling, or a mark remaining upon the body.
The plural أبلاد is used for such traces or marks.
- Lane · entry 37056
- Mufradāt · row 154
بَلَدٌ
The origin or an element of a thing.
This is an independently reported, broader lexical extension.
- Lane · entry 37056
بَلْدَةٌ
In the expression بلدة بيني وبينك, a country or region that separates two people; figuratively, a cause of separation or estrangement.
The expression is idiomatic and does not restrict the ordinary land or locality sense of بلدة.
- Lane · entry 37057
بَلْدَةٌ
A desert, waterless or desolate tract, and by extension any extensive stretch of land.
The sense may describe a place in which one cannot find one's way.
- Lane · entry 37057
البَلْدَةُ
A mansion of the Moon, or the associated patch or asterism in the sky.
The lexical reports identify it with a group of stars in Sagittarius, while recording variant astronomical descriptions.
- Lane · entry 37057
بَلْدَةٌ
The hollow or region between the collar-bones, the breast or chest, or the corresponding part of an animal.
The evidence applies the term to humans, camels, horses, and other animals, with several anatomical specifications.
- Lane · entry 37057
بَلْدَةٌ
The palm of the hand.
The sense occurs in a figurative expression for striking one palm against the breast.
- Lane · entry 37057
بُلْدَةٌ
The form, appearance, or lineaments of the face.
This is distinct from the narrower space between the eyebrows.
- Lane · entry 37058
بَلِيدٌ، أَبْلَدٌ
Stupid, dull, inert, or lacking penetration, vigor, and effectiveness in carrying out affairs.
أبلد can be the comparative or intensive form; the adjective may also describe softness, weakness, or lack of endurance.
- Lane · entry 37060
- Lane · entry 37063
بَلَادَةٌ
Stupidity, dullness, or lack of intelligence, penetration, vigor, or effectiveness.
This is the abstract noun corresponding to the quality described by بَلُدَ and بَلِيدٌ.
- Lane · entry 37061
بَالِدٌ
Remaining, staying, abiding, or dwelling in a country or place.
The adjective is used of one who remains in a بلد or other location.
- Lane · entry 37062
بَالِدٌ
Lasting or not ceasing, failing, or passing away.
This usage is reported as an imitative or paired formation alongside تالد.
- Lane · entry 37062
أَبْلَدٌ
Large, gross, rude, or coarse in bodily build.
The evidence applies the adjective to a person of a large or coarse make.
- Lane · entry 37063
مَبْلُودٌ
Confounded or perplexed, idiotic or deficient in intellect, or unable to proceed when one's means or mount have failed.
The several reported applications are treated as related states of confusion, incapacity, or loss of direction.
- Lane · entry 37065
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
بلَد and بَلْدَة overlap in the Quranic land and locality senses; the reported generic-versus-particular distinction is a usage tendency rather than an absolute rule.
Some Lane material is printed under cross-referenced or imperfectly assigned headings such as أَرْضٌ and بيض; it is included here only where the text itself explicitly identifies بلد, بلدة, or a derivative of this root.
The Lane citation connected with the hand-gesture usage uses historical Roman-numeral citation conventions and is not presented as a modern Quran verse location.