Quranic root
بيت
b · y · t
The root centers on a shelter or place of return: a dwelling in which people gather and reside. From this comes the sense of a house, household, and any structure understood as a joined or encompassing whole.
The lexical development extends from dwelling and residence to the household and to the poetic verse as a structured collection of words. Its verbal branch specializes in being or acting through the night, then in planning or attacking by night; related derivatives describe nighttime states, provisions, and things left overnight.
- Maqāyīs · row 888
- Mufradāt · row 166
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 73
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
بَاتَ
bāta
- 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 spend or pass the night, or to be engaged in a stated activity during the night.
The verb describes nighttime residence or activity and does not by itself require sleep; in the Quranic occurrence it describes worship through the night.
- Lane · entry 37518
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:64word 2
“spend (the) night”
بَيَّتَ
bayyata
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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 deliberate, devise, or formulate a matter, especially through nighttime consideration.
In the Quran, the object may be a course of action or words that are privately considered and prepared; the nighttime framing is part of the conventional construction.
- Lane · entry 37519
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:81word 7
“plan by night”
Quran 4:108word 11
“they plot by night”
To attack or come upon people by night, taking them by surprise.
Used of a nighttime assault upon an enemy or people while they are heedless.
- Lane · entry 37519
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:49word 4
“surely, we will attack him by night”
بَيَاتٌ
bayātun
- Part of speech
- Noun · temporal adverb
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Nighttime; by night or during the night.
Used adverbially to mark when an event occurs, including an event that comes in the latter part of the night.
- Lane · entry 37518
- Lane · entry 37526
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:50word 6
“(by) night”
A coming upon or attacking an enemy by night; a sudden nighttime arrival of harm.
The term can describe a night raid or, in warning contexts, punishment arriving by night while people are unaware or asleep.
- Lane · entry 37526
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:4word 7
“(at) night”
Quran 7:97word 7
“(at) night”
بَيْتٌ
baytun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 65 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 house, dwelling, tent, or other built shelter; by extension, a residential structure or premises.
The Quranic noun covers structures made of stone, earth, wool, hair, or similar materials, including ordinary homes, tents, and uninhabited buildings used by travelers or for commerce.
- Lane · entry 37523
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:93word 4
“a house”
Quran 16:80word 12
“tents”
A designated sacred house or place of worship, especially the Kaaba, the House of God.
The definite singular can designate the Kaaba, while plural بُيُوت may denote mosques, sanctuaries, or other specially designated religious houses in Quranic contexts.
- Lane · entry 37523
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:96word 3
“House”
Quran 24:36word 2
“houses”
The household or people associated with a house; a house understood as a family or group.
In the construction أَهْلُ الْبَيْتِ, the expression denotes the people of the house and can function as a defined family designation.
- Lane · entry 37523
- Mufradāt · row 166
Selected Quran examples
Quran 33:33word 23
“(of) the House”
Noah’s ark, in a Quranic interpretation of بَيْت in the account of Noah.
This is a specialized interpretive application in the passage at 71:28, not a general synonym for an ordinary house.
- Lane · entry 37523
Selected Quran examples
Quran 71:28word 7
“my house”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:125ٱلْبَيْتَthe House
- 2:125بَيْتِىَMy House
- 2:127ٱلْبَيْتِthe House
- 2:158ٱلْبَيْتَ(of) the House
- 2:189ٱلْبُيُوتَ(to) the houses
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 25 Classical meanings
بَاتَ
To become, remain, or be in a particular place or state, whether by night or by day.
A use parallel to كَانَ or صَارَ, without the ordinary restriction to nighttime.
- Lane · entry 37518
بَاتَ
To marry or take a wife; in another usage, to give a woman in marriage.
A derived or figurative marriage-related use, distinct from the ordinary nighttime verb.
- Lane · entry 37518
بَيَّتَ
To construct or build a house or tent.
Takes the house or structure as its object.
- Lane · entry 37519
بَيَّتَ
To retain or defer property until night instead of distributing it promptly.
Attested in a conventional expression concerning delaying the disposal of property.
- Lane · entry 37519
بَيَّتَ
To trim or prune palm trees by cutting off stumps or straggling branches.
A specialized agricultural use.
- Lane · entry 37519
أَبَاتَ
To cause someone to pass or enter upon the night in a particular condition.
A causative Form IV use, often occurring in wishes for a good or safe night.
- Lane · entry 37520
تَبَيَّتَ
To withhold or debar someone from what they want.
Used with a person and the desired object or need.
- Lane · entry 37521
اِسْتَبَاتَ
To seek, require, or possess food or provision sufficient for a night.
The lexical discussion reports both the seeking or requiring of food and the contrary state of having a night’s provision; the related noun can therefore describe neediness.
- Lane · entry 37522
بَيْتٌ
A pavilion, palace, mansion, or substantial residence.
A specialized extension of the sense of a built dwelling.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
A grave.
A figurative or comparative use for a place that receives and contains the dead.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
An animal’s constructed habitation, such as a burrow, hole, or spider’s web.
A figurative extension from a human dwelling to an animal-made shelter.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
A man’s wife.
A figurative household-related use; some contexts instead intend the household as a whole.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
The nobility of an Arab tribe, or the family comprising its noble line.
Used of a distinguished house or lineage rather than a physical dwelling.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
A noble or eminent person, regarded as the chief of his people.
A metonymic extension from a noble house to its outstanding member.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
The furniture, equipment, or household provisions sufficient for a tent or house.
Used in marriage and household arrangements for the furnishings supplied with a dwelling.
- Lane · entry 37523
بَيْتٌ
A verse or line of poetry, especially one composed of recognized metrical divisions.
A metaphor based on the joining of words and metrical parts as the components of a tent or house; it may also denote the chief verse of a poem.
- Lane · entry 37523
- Maqāyīs · row 888
بِيتَةٌ
A manner, condition, or state in which one passes or enters upon the night.
A verbal noun or substantive derived from بَاتَ.
- Lane · entry 37525
بِيتَةٌ
Food or victuals sufficient for a night.
Used especially in expressions denying that someone has a night’s supply of food.
- Lane · entry 37525
بَيُّوتٌ
Having remained for a night and consequently becoming stale, especially of bread.
Describes the effect of overnight keeping.
- Lane · entry 37528
بَيُّوتٌ
Cold or cool from having remained overnight, especially of water or milk.
Used of liquid left beneath the sky or in a skin during the night.
- Lane · entry 37528
بَيُّوتٌ
Persisting through the night, especially of an affair causing anxiety or grief.
Used of a troubling matter or emotion that occupies someone during the night.
- Lane · entry 37528
بَيُّوتَةٌ
A tooth that does not fall out or become shed.
A specialized anatomical use.
- Lane · entry 37528
مَبِيتٌ
A place in which one passes or enters upon the night.
A place-of-stay noun derived from the nighttime verb.
- Lane · entry 37530
مُتَبَيِّتَةٌ
A woman who has obtained a house or its furnishings together with a husband.
A conventional description of a married woman established with a household.
- Lane · entry 37531
مُسْتَبِيتٌ
Poor or needy, lacking more than food or possessing only food and nothing beyond it.
A derived designation connected with the possession or lack of a night’s provision; synonymous with فقير in this use.
- Lane · entry 37532
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I verb بَاتَ has a classical disagreement over whether sleep is entailed; the Quranic occurrence clearly concerns passing the night in worship, while the verb itself primarily marks nighttime activity or residence.
The ark sense is a specialized Quranic interpretation of بَيْت in 71:28 and should not be generalized to the ordinary noun meaning.
The T-tagged بَيَات occurrence is accounted for with the nominal temporal form because the evidence supports the same lexical item used adverbially.