Quranic root
بوب
b · w · b
The root centers on the bāb: a door or gate and the guarding or provision of that entrance.
The noun بَاب preserves an original wāw in its etymology. Derived uses extend from taking or serving as a gatekeeper to figurative access, organization under headings, and related lexical formations.
- Maqāyīs · row 871
- Lane · entry 37413
- Lane · entry 37415
- Lane · entry 37416
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 27
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَاب
bāb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 27 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 door or gate; the physical entrance to a place.
Used for an entrance or the door or gate that closes it, including entrances to houses, cities, and other places. The Quran uses both the singular بَاب and the broken plural أَبْوَاب.
- Lane · entry 37416
- Mufradāt · row 87
Selected Quran examples
A means or avenue of access to, or attainment of, something.
A Quran-attested figurative or spiritually oriented use in which opening gates signifies access to what is granted, or gates associated with Paradise and Hell are understood as routes by which those realms are reached.
- Lane · entry 37416
- Mufradāt · row 87
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:58ٱلْبَابَthe gate
- 2:189أَبْوَٰبِهَا ۚtheir doors
- 4:154ٱلْبَابَthe gate
- 5:23ٱلْبَابَ(through) the gate
- 6:44أَبْوَٰبَgates
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 19 Classical meanings
بَابَ
To be or become a doorkeeper or gatekeeper for someone.
Form I verb, used with لِ to indicate the person served.
- Lane · entry 37413
بَوَّبَ
To employ the expedients or stratagems of war; hence, to charge upon, attack, or assault an enemy.
A derived Form II verbal use; the attack sense is presented as a development from employing war stratagems.
- Lane · entry 37414
بَوَّبَ
To divide, arrange, distribute, or classify things under distinct heads or categories; to divide a book into chapters.
Form II verbal use applied to things, categories, books, and other ordered material.
- Lane · entry 37414
تَبَوَّبَ
To take a doorkeeper or gatekeeper for oneself.
Form V verbal use, also expressed with بَوَّابًا.
- Lane · entry 37415
بَابٌ
An opening or channel made to admit water for irrigating crops.
A specialized physical application; its plural is أَبْوَاب.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابٌ
A sepulchral chamber, grotto, or cave hewn in a mountain.
A reported Egyptian usage, with بِيبَان given as its plural.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابٌ
An expedient, trick, stratagem, or process by which something is effected.
Figurative use applied to war, astrology or astronomy, enchantment, and comparable procedures.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابٌ
A mode, kind, sort, class, or category.
Figurative classification language, including expressions for belonging to a particular category.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابٌ
A chapter, section, or subdivision of a book or writing.
A conventional use for a piece of writing dealing with matters of one kind or species; plural أَبْوَاب.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابٌ
A head or class of items in an account or reckoning.
Used for separating an account into individual categories or heads.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابٌ
An extreme term or limit.
Reported in some usage with reference to limits in punishments, accounts, and similar matters; this is a specialized sense rather than the ordinary door meaning.
- Lane · entry 37416
بَابَةٌ
A mode or manner; something suitable to a person.
Used in expressions of suitability or conformity, such as something being of a person's mode or manner.
- Lane · entry 37417
بَابَةٌ
A habit, property, quality, nature, natural disposition, practice, or action.
A lexical branch covering a person's characteristic trait or customary practice.
- Lane · entry 37417
بَابَةٌ
A condition or stipulation.
Used in constructions identifying the condition of one thing as the condition of another.
- Lane · entry 37417
بَابَاتُ الكِتَابِ
The lines of a book or writing; possibly its chapters or sections.
A plural expression for divisions of a book; a secure singular form for this usage is not reported.
- Lane · entry 37417
بَوْبَاةٌ
A desert, especially a desert in which there is no water.
A lexical synonym of a waterless open tract or wilderness.
- Lane · entry 37418
بِوَابَةٌ
The office or occupation of a doorkeeper or gatekeeper.
Denotes the role or occupational function rather than the person who performs it.
- Lane · entry 37419
بَوَّابٌ
A doorkeeper or gatekeeper.
An agent noun for a person entrusted with guarding or attending an entrance.
- Lane · entry 37420
أَبْوَابٌ مُبَوَّبَةٌ
Arranged or classified into distinct kinds, categories, heads, or chapters.
A phrase applied to ordered material, especially items or books divided under distinct headings.
- Lane · entry 37421
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC group combines the singular بَاب with its broken plural أَبْوَاب; the public headword is normalized to the singular citation form.
The access interpretation is explicitly attested in Quran-focused lexical discussion, but not every Quranic occurrence of أَبْوَاب is thereby figurative.