Quranic root
دكك
d · k · k
The root centers on pressing, breaking down, lowering, and spreading until elevations are removed and a thing becomes compact, flat, or level.
The lexical evidence distinguishes a principal development toward lowering and flattening, alongside a closely related pounding or crushing branch. These extend to level ground, compact sand, low hills, crushed objects, and several specialized derived uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 1796
- Mufradāt · row 478
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- 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.
دَكَّ
dakka
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To crush, break, pound, or beat something so that it is broken down.
In the Quranic occurrences the verb is passive: the object is subjected to crushing, with the result presented as crushed or reduced to fine particles.
- Lane · entry 990
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:14word 4
“and crushed”
To demolish or level something, removing its elevations and making it even.
The Quranic event may be understood as the leveling of earth or mountains, their reduction to fine dust, or the demolition of structures; these are related outcomes of the same destructive action.
- Lane · entry 990
- Mufradāt · row 478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 89:21word 3
“is leveled”
دَكّ
dakk
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- 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.
Crushing, pounding, or breaking down; a crushing blow or act.
In the Quranic construction دَكَّةً وَاحِدَةً, the verbal noun denotes one crushing or flattening blow. It may describe an object being pounded or broken down.
- Lane · entry 990
- Mufradāt · row 478
Selected Quran examples
Leveling or flattening, with the resulting state of smooth, soft, even ground.
The Quranic usage can describe earth or a mountain being made like low, level ground; translations may emphasize leveling, crumbling, or fine dust.
- Lane · entry 996
- Mufradāt · row 478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:143word 29
“crumbled to dust”
دَكَّاءُ
dakkāʾu
- Part of speech
- Adjective · feminine substantivized
- 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.
Broad, low, level, or flattened land or hill; a formation without rugged mountainous elevation.
The Quranic construction جَعَلَهُ دَكَّاءَ describes making a formation level or flattened. The feminine form may be used substantively for a low mound or tract of level ground.
- Lane · entry 1004
- Mufradāt · row 478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:98word 11
“level”
دَكَّةٌ
dakkahun
- 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 single crushing or flattening blow or act.
In فَدُكَّتَا دَكَّةً وَاحِدَةً, the noun specifies one unified crushing or leveling action; it does not have the platform meaning found in broader Classical usage.
- Lane · entry 990
- Mufradāt · row 478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:14word 5
“(with) a crushing”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 7:143دَكًّۭاcrumbled to dust
- 18:98دَكَّآءَ ۖlevel
- 69:14فَدُكَّتَاand crushed
- 69:14دَكَّةًۭ(with) a crushing
- 89:21دُكَّتِis leveled
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 33 Classical meanings
دَكَّ
To spread or pour earth over a roof, flat roof, or corpse.
A conventional construction for covering a surface or a burial place with earth.
- Lane · entry 990
دَكَّ
To fill a well with earth.
Used of filling or burying a well by putting earth into it.
- Lane · entry 990
دَكَّ
To push or thrust someone.
A transitive use compared with verbs meaning to strike or thrust.
- Lane · entry 990
دَكَّ
To press upon a sexual partner by one's weight; to have sexual intercourse.
A specialized conventional construction describing sexual pressing or compression.
- Lane · entry 990
دَكَّ
To fatigue or exhaust an animal by prolonged travel.
Used with an animal subjected to tiring journeying.
- Lane · entry 990
دُكَّ
To be weakened by fever or disease, or to become ill.
A passive or stative construction describing the person's condition under illness.
- Lane · entry 990
دَكَّ
To send camels forth all together.
A specialized use describing the coordinated dispatch of a group of camels.
- Lane · entry 990
دَكَّكَ
To mix colocynth with dates or another ingredient.
Used of preparing a mixture, especially the named food mixture.
- Lane · entry 991
تَدَاكَّ
To press or crowd upon someone or something.
Used of people, horses, or horsemen pressing together or upon a target.
- Lane · entry 992
اِنْدَكَّ
To become level, with elevations and depressions made even.
An intransitive change of state applied especially to a place or tract of land.
- Lane · entry 993
اِنْدَكَّ
For a camel's hump to become spread over the animal's sides or back.
A specialized intransitive use describing loss of a prominent hump.
- Lane · entry 993
اِنْدَكَّ
For sand to become compact.
Used of sand becoming pressed together rather than remaining loose.
- Lane · entry 993
دَكْدَكَ
For a stallion-camel to cover a she-camel, pressing her by his weight.
A specialized camel-breeding construction referring to the act of covering.
- Lane · entry 994
تَدَكْدَكَ
For mountains to become low hills or mounds of mould or clay.
Used of mountains losing their rugged elevation and becoming mound-like formations.
- Lane · entry 995
دَكّ
Even or level sand.
A nominal use describing sand that lies flat or even.
- Lane · entry 996
دَكّ
A mound or hill of dust or earth, such as a low tell.
A distinct nominal topographical use, not necessarily implying complete leveling.
- Lane · entry 996
دُكّ
A low mountain or elevated hill of mould or clay; also disintegrated hills or knolls.
Used for low or crumbling elevations and related landforms.
- Lane · entry 997
دُكّ
Strong and bulky.
An adjectival use describing robust physical build.
- Lane · entry 997
دَكَّةٌ
An elevated place or flat-topped structure on which one sits; a wide bench or platform.
A nominal architectural and furnishing use, distinct from the Quranic noun in the expression for one crushing.
- Lane · entry 998
دَكَكٌ
The condition of a camel having no hump or having a hump that is broken, bruised, or not prominent.
Applied to camels whose hump is absent, flattened, or spread rather than prominently raised.
- Lane · entry 1000
- Lane · entry 1001
دُكَكَةٌ
A food made from colocynth and flour when flour is scarce.
A specialized culinary noun for the prepared mixture.
- Lane · entry 1002
دَكِيكٌ
Complete or full, when applied to a year, month, or day.
A specialized adjective of periods of time.
- Lane · entry 1003
أَدَكُّ
Broad, flat-topped, or expanded, when applied to a hill; also even and compact, when applied to sand.
An adjectival description of low, broad landforms and compact, level sand.
- Lane · entry 1008
أَدَكُّ
A horse broad and short in the back.
A specialized description of equine build.
- Lane · entry 1008
أَدَكُّ
A camel whose hump is absent, not prominent, or spread over the sides.
Applied to either a male or female camel according to the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 1008
مِدَكّ
A strong person who treads the ground forcefully or is strong at work.
An adjectival noun for physical strength and vigorous exertion.
- Lane · entry 1009
مَدَكَّكٌ
Colocynth eaten with dates or another food.
A specialized descriptive noun or adjective for the prepared food.
- Lane · entry 1010
مَدْكُوكٌ
Broken, crushed, bruised, or pounded.
The passive participle describes an object subjected to the action of دَكَّ.
- Lane · entry 1011
مَدْكُوكٌ
Land without elevations, producing the shrub called رِمْث.
A specialized description of flat land in the cited environmental usage.
- Lane · entry 1011
مَدْكُوكٌ
A horse lacking prominence in the crest of the hip or haunch.
A specialized description of equine bodily form.
- Lane · entry 1011
مَدْكُوكٌ
Weakened by fever or disease; sick or ill.
Applied to a person whose strength has been reduced by illness.
- Lane · entry 1011
مُدَكْدَكَةٌ
Land marred and trampled by heavy human and livestock traffic.
The cited use describes land containing abundant tracks and animal urine and disliked for that reason, except when rain makes it a necessary gathering place.
- Lane · entry 1012
دَكْدَاكٌ
Compact, low, and level sand or land; a tract whose surface is pressed together and not much elevated, including a low even tract or land with some ruggedness.
A specialized topographical description applied to sand and to low or depressed tracts of land; the evidence groups compactness, lack of elevation, evenness, and limited ruggedness under this headword.
- Lane · entry 1007
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Quranic translations alternate among crushed, pounded, leveled, and reduced to dust; the evidence supports related crushing and flattening outcomes rather than treating every English rendering as a separate lexical sense.