Quranic root
دهر
d · h · r
The root centers on overcoming, overpowering, and prevailing.
The noun دَهْرٌ is explained as time that overtakes or prevails over everything, developing into the sense of world-encompassing or prolonged time and, in Classical usage, associations with fortune and calamity.
- Maqāyīs · row 1845
- Mufradāt · row 489
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
دَهْرٌ
dahrun
- 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.
An extended span of time: the duration of the world from its beginning to its end, or a long period.
This is the Quranic use for a substantial or world-encompassing duration, including the period before human existence.
- Lane · entry 1435
- Mufradāt · row 489
Selected Quran examples
Quran 76:1word 7
“time”
Time regarded as the cause or agent of human destruction and death.
In the Quranic report of the claim that nothing destroys people except dahr, the term is attributed the power to bring about destruction; the statement is reported as the belief of the rejecters, not endorsed as an independent causal doctrine.
- Mufradāt · row 489
Selected Quran examples
Quran 45:24word 12
“the time”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 21 Classical meanings
دَهْرٌ
A period or portion of time, whether long or short; in specialized usage, a division of a year or a conventional span such as a thousand years.
This broader Classical usage is distinguished in some accounts from زَمَانٌ, which more freely denotes periods of either length.
- Lane · entry 1435
دَهْرٌ
A person's lifetime, age, or present state of existence.
Used when the period is defined by an individual's life or by the current state of worldly existence.
- Lane · entry 1435
- Mufradāt · row 489
دَهْرٌ
An indefinitely long or endless duration; ancient or bygone time; in idioms, ever or always.
This includes expressions for the beginning of past time, enduring forever, and an age without end.
- Lane · entry 1435
- Lane · entry 1443
- Lane · entry 1444
دَهْرٌ
Fate or fortune, conceived as the bringer of good and evil events.
Classical idiom may personify dahr as the force whose accidents one encounters or for which one may be prepared. Theological explanations distinguish this attribution from the true agency of God.
- Lane · entry 1435
- Mufradāt · row 489
دَهْرٌ
An evil event, misfortune, or calamity.
This is a noun use for the adverse event itself rather than for time generally.
- Lane · entry 1435
دَهْرٌ
A purpose, intention, desire, or end held in view.
Occurs in expressions such as مَا دَهْرِي بِكَذَا, meaning that one's purpose or desire is not such a thing.
- Lane · entry 1435
دَهْرٌ
A constant or lifelong custom or habit.
This is a figurative extension referring to conduct maintained throughout life.
- Lane · entry 1435
- Mufradāt · row 489
دَهَرَ
For an event or misfortune to befall or afflict someone.
Used in the construction دَهَرَهُمْ أَمْرٌ or دَهَرَ بِهِمْ أَمْرٌ, literally describing an event from fate or fortune coming upon them.
- Lane · entry 1431
دَهَرَ
To overcome, conquer, subdue, overpower, or master someone; to prevail over or surpass him.
This is a transitive Form I verb and is distinct from the noun meaning of time.
- Lane · entry 1431
مُدَاهَرَةٌ
An engagement, contract, bargain, or hiring arrangement made for a long period or on a continuing basis.
Used for working arrangements and for hiring someone for an extended term.
- Lane · entry 1432
دَهْوَرَ
To collect something together and throw it into a deep place; to push a wall so that it falls.
The object is caused to move downward or be cast into a depth.
- Lane · entry 1433
دَهْوَرَ
To make mouthfuls large or rounded and gulp them down.
This is a specialized usage concerning the formation and swallowing of mouthfuls.
- Lane · entry 1433
تَدَهْوَرَ
To pour down and fall, or to fall from a higher place to a lower one.
Reported of sand and other things that descend or collapse downward.
- Lane · entry 1434
تَدَهْوَرَ
For the night to go away, depart, or retreat, for the most part.
This is a figurative usage describing the recession of the night.
- Lane · entry 1434
دَهْرِيٌّ
A person who deviates from received truth and holds that the present world is eternal, denying resurrection or the world to come.
This is the theological or philosophical designation associated with belief in the eternity of the present world.
- Lane · entry 1437
دَهْرِيٌّ / دُهْرِيٌّ
An old or aged man.
The cited lexical tradition reports this use under one or both of the vocalized forms.
- Lane · entry 1437
دَهْرِيٌّ / دُهْرِيٌّ
An acute, ingenious, or expert man.
This is a separately reported Classical usage of the same vocalized forms.
- Lane · entry 1437
دَهَارِيرُ
Misfortunes or calamities.
A plural form without an agreed singular in some accounts; used in expressions for falling into calamities.
- Lane · entry 1443
دَهَارِيرُ
Severe or calamitous; describing an age or times marked by adversity, prosperity, or variation.
The form occurs in intensified expressions for a calamitous age and for varying or long times.
- Lane · entry 1443
دَهْرٌ دَاهِرٌ
An intensified expression for a very long or endless period, or for a severe and calamitous age.
The epithet intensifies the duration or severity expressed by دَهْرٌ.
- Lane · entry 1444
مَدْهُورٌ
Afflicted with an evil event or misfortune.
Used predicatively of people who have been struck by an adverse event.
- Lane · entry 1445
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic evidence in this packet attests the noun دَهْرٌ only; the verbs and derived forms listed under Classical meanings are not Quran-attested forms here.
In 45:24, the claim that dahr destroys is reported as the speech of the rejecters; it is not a Quranic assertion that time independently causes destruction.