Quranic root
بني
b · n · y
The root centers on building: joining parts together to form a whole, structure, or established configuration.
From physical construction, the lexicon extends to structures and their forms, the establishment of honor or status, and relational terms for offspring as those brought into being or formed by a parent.
- Maqāyīs · row 852
- Mufradāt · row 160
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 10
- Quran senses
- 184
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَنَى
banā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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.
To build, construct, or raise a structure.
Used of constructing or forming a physical structure, including the heavens and other built or established structures; the Quranic forms include perfect, imperfect, and imperative forms.
- Lane · entry 37245
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
بِنْت
bint
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 19 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 daughter; a female child in relation to a parent.
The Quran uses the singular and plural forms بِنْت and بَنَات, including in claims about daughters attributed to a deity and in direct familial reference.
- Lane · entry 37269
- Lane · entry 37250
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:78word 13
“(are) my daughters”
Quran 28:27word 7
“(of) my daughters”
Quran 66:12word 2
“(the) daughter”
بَنَّاء
bannāʾ
- 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 builder; one whose work is building.
An occupational noun denoting a person engaged in building or construction.
- Lane · entry 37265
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:37word 3
“builder”
بِنَاء
bināʾ
- Part of speech
- 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.
A built thing, building, or structure.
A noun for something constructed or established; the Quranic occurrences refer to the heaven as a construction or covering.
- Lane · entry 37261
- Mufradāt · row 160
A roof, ceiling, or canopy spread over or pitched above something.
A Quranic construction in which the sky is described as a covering above the earth; the historical citation in the lexical evidence is not treated as a modern verse reference.
- Lane · entry 37261
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:22word 7
“a canopy”
Quran 40:64word 8
“a canopy”
اِبْن
āibn
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 143 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 son or male child; in the plural, sons, children, or descendants belonging to a named parent, ancestor, or people.
The Quran uses اِبْن for an individual son and plural forms such as أَبْنَاء, بَنُون, بَنِينَ, and بَنِي for family, lineage, and community designations.
- Lane · entry 37269
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:34word 3
“(the) son”
Quran 2:40word 1
“O Children”
A person closely connected with or characterized by the following noun, in an established relational compound; in the Quran, ابن السبيل denotes a wayfarer or traveler.
This is a conventional compound use rather than a claim of biological sonship; the Quranic expression ابن السبيل identifies one connected with the road through travel.
- Lane · entry 37269
- Lane · entry 37270
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:177word 27
“and (of)”
A little son or dear child, expressed by the diminutive بُنَيّ.
Used especially in affectionate or intimate address, including the Quranic vocative يَا بُنَيَّ.
- Lane · entry 37262
- Lane · entry 37277
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:5word 2
“O my son”
بُنْيَان
bunyān
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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 building, structure, or edifice.
A noun for a constructed structure, including a structure conceived as a unified or solid whole.
- Lane · entry 37261
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:110word 3
“their building”
Quran 61:4word 10
“(were) a structure”
Quran 18:21word 21
“a structure”
مَبْنِيّ
mabniyy
- 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.
Built or constructed.
A passive participle describing something made into a structure; the Quranic occurrence is feminine in agreement with غرف.
- Lane · entry 37281
- Mufradāt · row 160
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:20word 10
“built high”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:22بِنَآءًۭa canopy
- 2:40يَـٰبَنِىٓO Children
- 2:47يَـٰبَنِىٓO Children
- 2:49أَبْنَآءَكُمْyour sons
- 2:83بَنِىٓ(from the) Children
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 45 Classical meanings
بَنَى
To bring a bride to the bridegroom or consummate the marriage.
A conventional use of بَنَى عَلَى or بَنَى بِـ, originally associated with pitching and furnishing a tent for the bride.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَى
To establish or raise a house of nobility, honor, or high status.
A figurative extension of building applied to attaining elevated degrees or collective distinction.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَى
To make the body or flesh grow and become large.
Used of food as the agent producing bodily growth or fattening.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَى
To rear, bring up, or educate a person.
A causative developmental use of the verb.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَى كَلِمَةً
To form or construct a word.
A technical linguistic use of building imagery applied to the formation of a word.
- Lane · entry 37245
بِنَاءُ كَلِمَةٍ
The fixed grammatical form of a word, with an invariant ending.
A grammatical technical term for a word remaining on one termination, such as a fixed sukūn or vowel, independently of a governing word.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَى القَصِيدَةَ
To give a poem a specified rhyme letter.
A poetic construction in which the poem is made to follow a particular final or chief rhyme.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَتِ القَوْسُ
For a bow to cling to its string so tightly that the string nearly breaks.
A specialized description of a bow's faulty relation to its string.
- Lane · entry 37245
بَنَّى
To build repeatedly, extensively, or on many objects.
The Form II pattern can mark frequency, intensity, or application to numerous structures.
- Lane · entry 37245
- Lane · entry 37246
أَبْنَى
To make someone build, or to provide him with a building or the means to build one.
Form IV is causative and may mean giving a house, tent, or building materials.
- Lane · entry 37247
أَبْنَى
To introduce a man to his wife on the occasion of marriage.
A causative marital use related to the construction-based marriage expression.
- Lane · entry 37247
تَبَنَّى
For a seated woman to become tent-like in shape or to spread her legs.
The expression compares bodily shape or posture with a pitched skin tent.
- Lane · entry 37248
تَبَنَّى
For a camel's hump to become fat.
A specialized bodily-growth use.
- Lane · entry 37248
تَبَنَّى
To adopt someone as a son, or claim him as a son.
A Form V relational use of taking or asserting someone as one's son.
- Lane · entry 37248
اِبْتَنَى
To become built, framed, or constructed.
An intransitive or passive-result use of Form VIII.
- Lane · entry 37249
بِنْيَة
The form, mode, or manner of building or construction.
May describe how something is formed or constructed rather than the resulting structure itself.
- Lane · entry 37257
بِنْيَة
Natural bodily constitution or physical build.
Used in expressions describing someone as sound or healthy in constitution.
- Lane · entry 37257
بِنَاء
An established state of glory, nobility, or honor conceived metaphorically as a building.
A figurative extension distinguished in the lexical evidence from construction of a physical object.
- Lane · entry 37261
بِنَاء
The body together with its limbs or members.
A nominal use referring to the bodily composition or assembled bodily whole.
- Lane · entry 37261
بِنَاء
A leather spread used on the ground, especially as a surface for food or prayer.
A specialized traditional object, also identified with نِطْع.
- Lane · entry 37261
بُنَيَّاتُ الطَّرِيقِ
Small roads or paths branching from a main road.
A diminutive-derived idiom for subsidiary routes.
- Lane · entry 37262
بُنَيّ
In an idiomatic comparison, something regarded as the offspring or derivative of another.
Illustrated by the proverbial expression treating gentleness as the 'son' of forbearance.
- Lane · entry 37262
بُنُوَّة
Sonship or the condition of being a son.
An abstract noun denoting the filial relation.
- Lane · entry 37263
البَنِيَّة
The Kaaba, regarded as the noble building.
A conventional honorific designation, including in oaths and the expression بَنِيَّةُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ.
- Lane · entry 37264
بَانٍ
One who builds, frames, or constructs.
An active participle distinct from the occupational noun بَنَّاء.
- Lane · entry 37266
بَانٍ
A bridegroom, or one going in to his wife.
A conventional extension from the marital use of بَنَى عَلَى أَهْلِهِ.
- Lane · entry 37266
بَانٍ
Clinging to a bowstring, or, in a dialectal usage, widely separated from it.
A specialized bow description with variant interpretation in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 37266
بَانَاة
A man who bends himself over his bowstring when shooting.
A specialized noun associated with the bow and string.
- Lane · entry 37267
بَانَاة
Small arrows.
A separate technical nominal use reported for the same form.
- Lane · entry 37267
بَوَانٍ
The ribs or breast bones, the shoulder blades and legs, or the legs of a she-camel.
The form is also used in idioms for settling or taking up residence, and for rain held by the sky.
- Lane · entry 37268
اِبْن
A more remote male descendant, such as a son's son, by extension of the son relation.
A broader genealogical extension beyond the immediate son sense.
- Lane · entry 37269
اِبْن
An individual or member of a non-human class designated in an ابن compound.
For irrational beings, the plural may take بنات, as in established terms for camels or stars.
- Lane · entry 37269
بِنْت
A doll or dolls used by young girls in play.
A figurative plural use distinct from the kinship noun daughter.
- Lane · entry 37269
اِبْنُ الطِّينِ
Adam, literally the son of earth or clay.
A fixed compound designation.
- Lane · entry 37269
اِبْن
In lexicalized compounds, a person characterized by or closely associated with the following noun, including a thief, warrior, or rich man.
Examples include ابن الليل and ابن الطريق for a thief or robber, ابن حرب for a warrior or defender, and ابن الدنيا for a rich man; these are distinct from the Quranic ابن السبيل use.
- Lane · entry 37270
اِبْن
A named animal or creature in fixed compounds, such as a jackal or weasel.
Examples include ابن آوى and ابن عرس.
- Lane · entry 37270
اِبْنُ أَدِيم
A skin container for water or milk made from one or more hides.
The compound distinguishes containers made from one, two, or three hides.
- Lane · entry 37270
بِنْتُ الجَبَلِ
An echo.
A fixed compound meaning literally the daughter of the mountain.
- Lane · entry 37270
بَنَات
Calamities or misfortunes.
Used in fixed expressions such as بَنَاتُ بَئْسٍ and related compounds.
- Lane · entry 37270
بَنَاتُ مَسَاجِدِ الله
Pebbles of the mosques of God, in a rare figurative expression.
An idiomatic characterization rather than a literal kinship expression.
- Lane · entry 37270
بَنَاةُ اللَّحْم
A girl whose flesh has grown or become large; an alternative interpretation relates the phrase to the sweet odor of flesh.
The lexical evidence reports both interpretations and records disagreement over the wording.
- Lane · entry 37253
مِبْنَاة
A skin screen, tent-like hide structure, mat, leather spread, or receptacle.
The term covers several traditional objects made from joined skins, including a small tent-like enclosure.
- Lane · entry 37280
مُبَنًّى
Raised high, especially a palace or pavilion.
A Form II passive-participle-derived adjective or noun, distinct from the Form I passive participle مَبْنِيّ.
- Lane · entry 37282
مُبْتَنًى
The act of building, framing, or constructing.
A nominal use of the Form VIII passive participle in place of the verbal noun.
- Lane · entry 37283
بَنَوِيّ
Of or relating to a son or daughter.
A relational adjective derived from اِبْن or بِنْت; the lexical evidence records relational uses referring to both sons and daughters, with variant forms.
- Lane · entry 37259
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form group bunaY~ combines ordinary plural forms such as بَنِي and بَنُون with the diminutive بُنَيَّ; these are retained under اِبْن with separate senses rather than treated as unrelated roots.
The QAC packet flags 20:94:2 in the metadata for the ابنَت group as a multi-root location, while that location is listed among the اِبْن occurrences and is not separately assigned to بِنْت.
Lane's historical Quran citation in the بِنَاء discussion is preserved as lexical evidence but is not converted into a modern surah:ayah reference.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
QAC marks 20:94:2 as an ambiguous multi-root location in the form-group metadata for qac-form:bny:{bonat:nominal:-}; the packet's occurrence lists place 20:94:2 under qac-form:bny:{bon:nominal:-}, so no additional daughter-form occurrence is claimed.