Quranic root
بخس
b · kh · s
The root centers on decrease: a reduction, deficiency, or shortfall.
The core idea of decrease is illustrated by the loss of marrow from the bones or eye. In its lexical extensions, it describes deficient amounts or prices and the wrongful withholding of what is due from another.
- Maqāyīs · row 704
- Mufradāt · row 97
- Lane · entry 35688
- Lane · entry 35690
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 7
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَخَسَ
bakhasa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To diminish, lessen, or make deficient.
Used of an amount, due, reward, or other thing that is reduced or made deficient; the passive expresses being diminished.
- Lane · entry 35688
- Mufradāt · row 97
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:282word 32
“diminish”
To wrongfully deprive or shortchange someone by withholding part of what is due.
A transitive construction may take a person together with that person’s right, property, or things; the passive may describe someone whose due is not diminished or who is not wronged.
- Lane · entry 35688
- Mufradāt · row 97
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:15word 14
“will not be lessened”
Quran 11:85word 7
“deprive”
بَخْسٌ
bakhsun
- Part of speech
- Adjective / 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.
Deficiency, diminution, or loss; something deficient or defective.
May denote a shortfall in what is due, including diminution of a reward or other amount.
- Lane · entry 35688
- Lane · entry 35690
- Mufradāt · row 97
Selected Quran examples
Quran 72:13word 12
“any loss”
A deficient, insufficient, or unjustly low price.
Used attributively of a price in a sale, especially one below what is due or appropriate.
- Lane · entry 35690
- Mufradāt · row 97
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:20word 3
“very low”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:282يَبْخَسْdiminish
- 7:85تَبْخَسُوا۟deprive
- 11:15يُبْخَسُونَwill not be lessened
- 11:85تَبْخَسُوا۟deprive
- 12:20بَخْسٍۢvery low
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 4 Classical meanings
تَبَاخَسَ
To defraud one another in a sale; to mutually under-value or cheat one another.
A reciprocal Form VI construction describing mutual defrauding in a commercial exchange.
- Lane · entry 35689
- Mufradāt · row 97
بَخْسٌ
Land or seed-produce that is deficiently watered and depends only on rainfall rather than irrigation from a spring, well, or the like.
A specialized application to land or crops characterized by deficient irrigation.
- Lane · entry 35690
بَاخِسٌ
A slight or deficient thing.
A lexical use of the active-participial form as a description of something small or lacking.
- Mufradāt · row 97
بَاخِسٌ
One who acts wrongfully or unjustly.
In a proverb, it is applied to someone who feigns weak understanding while being crafty and cunning.
- Lane · entry 35692
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I group includes both active and passive imperfect Quranic occurrences; voice is treated as a constructional difference within the same lexical senses, not as a separate headword.