Quranic root
درك
d · r · k
The root centers on one thing catching up with, reaching, or joining another.
From this orientation develop meanings of overtaking and attainment, successive joining, reaching an endpoint, perception as attaining knowledge, and downward levels or depths.
- Maqāyīs · row 1745
- Mufradāt · row 467
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 10
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَدْرَكَ
ʾadraka
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 attain, reach, overtake, or catch up with someone or something.
Used for physical pursuit and for reaching a person, thing, time, or event. The Quranic occurrences include both overtaking and attaining an endpoint.
- Lane · entry 583
- Mufradāt · row 467
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:100word 21
“overtakes him”
Quran 10:90word 12
“overtook him”
To perceive, comprehend, or attain knowledge of something.
May refer to sensory perception or to intellectual comprehension; the Quranic construction contrasts human perception with divine perception.
- Lane · entry 583
- Mufradāt · row 467
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:103word 2
“grasp Him”
To reach an utmost limit and thereby come to an end, fail, or become exhausted.
Attested in Lane’s discussion of a Quranic reading concerning knowledge of the Hereafter; this is an endpoint or exhaustion sense rather than ordinary pursuit.
- Lane · entry 583
- Mufradāt · row 467
تَدَارَكَ
tadāraka
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VI
- Form
- VI
- 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.
To catch up with one another, overtake one another, or arrive successively until all are joined.
A reciprocal or collective construction; it can describe the last of a group reaching the first or successive arrival in a place.
- Lane · entry 584
- Mufradāt · row 467
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:38word 21
“they had overtaken one another”
To reach someone with favor, aid, or relief; to come to someone’s rescue.
Used especially of a benefaction or mercy reaching a person and averting a bad outcome.
- Lane · entry 584
- Mufradāt · row 467
Selected Quran examples
Quran 68:49word 3
“overtook him”
To run on to an endpoint or completion; of knowledge, to reach or fail to reach the matter of the Hereafter.
The Quranic expression about knowledge of the Hereafter has variant readings and interpretations, including knowledge reaching its limit, becoming clear only later, or proceeding until it is cut short.
- Lane · entry 584
- Mufradāt · row 467
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:66word 2
“is arrested”
دَرَكٌ
darakun
- 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.
Overtaking or being caught up with.
In the Quranic expression, it denotes the feared pursuit or overtaking of the Israelites by Pharaoh.
- Lane · entry 588
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:77word 16
“to be overtaken”
A consequence, liability, or adverse claim that catches up with a person.
The Quranic passage is also explained as referring to an adverse consequence or liability rather than physical pursuit.
- Mufradāt · row 467
- Lane · entry 588
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:77word 16
“to be overtaken”
دَرْكٌ
darkun
- 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 bottom, lowest depth, or descending level; specifically, a stage of Hell.
Opposed to an ascending degree or stage; in the Quranic expression it denotes the lowest level of the Fire.
- Lane · entry 588
- Mufradāt · row 467
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:145word 4
“the depths”
مُدْرَكٌ
mudrakun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Overtaken, reached, or caught up with.
The Quranic occurrence is a passive participle describing people who are to be overtaken.
- Lane · entry 583
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:61word 8
“(are) surely to be overtaken”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:78يُدْرِككُّمُwill overtake you
- 4:100يُدْرِكْهُovertakes him
- 4:145ٱلدَّرْكِthe depths
- 6:103تُدْرِكُهُgrasp Him
- 6:103يُدْرِكُ(can) grasp
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
تَدْرِيكٌ
The dropping of rain in close succession, as though one portion overtakes another.
- Lane · entry 581
تَدْرِيكٌ
Hanging a rope around a person’s neck to couple that person with another.
- Lane · entry 581
دِرَاكٌ
Uninterrupted continuation or performance, with one part following another without a gap.
Applied to successive actions such as thrusting, drinking, or striking.
- Lane · entry 582
- Lane · entry 591
دِرَاكٌ
The overtaking or catching up of hunted animals by a horse.
- Lane · entry 582
أَدْرَكَ
To obtain, acquire, or secure something, including revenge or retaliation.
A classical extension of attaining something sought.
- Lane · entry 583
أَدْرَكَ
To reach the proper or final stage; to mature or ripen.
Said of a person reaching maturity or puberty, fruit becoming ripe, a pot reaching the proper cooking stage, or wine maturing; water may also be said to reach the bottom of a well.
- Lane · entry 583
أَدْرَكَ
For a payment or price to become obligatory upon the purchaser.
An idiomatic, figurative use of reaching or becoming due.
- Lane · entry 583
تَدَارَكَ
To continue or proceed uninterruptedly, with one part closely following another.
Applied to a course, journey, or successive reports and other sequences.
- Lane · entry 584
اِسْتَدْرَكَ
To repair, correct, or supplement an omission or error.
Used of correcting a statement, supplying something omitted, or following up a neglected matter with what completes it.
- Lane · entry 586
دَرَكٌ
The attainment or acquisition of a desired object, and the seeking of that attainment.
- Lane · entry 588
دَرَكٌ
A rope or rope-piece attached to the lower end of a well rope and connected to the bucket.
It is the portion next to the water and helps keep the main rope from rotting.
- Lane · entry 588
دِرْكَةٌ
A ring or thong belonging to a bowstring, or an added piece joining a belt, rope, or cord that is too short.
The precise object varies with the construction described.
- Lane · entry 589
دَرَاكِ
An imperative verbal noun meaning “attain,” “reach,” or “overtake.”
A fixed imperative expression associated with the otherwise unused Form I verb دَرَكَ.
- Lane · entry 590
دَرِيكَةٌ
An animal that is hunted.
- Lane · entry 593
دَرَّاكٌ
One who attains, reaches, or overtakes often or quickly; by extension, one possessing strong or rapid perception.
An epithet applied to a person.
- Lane · entry 594
مُدْرَكٌ
A place or time at which attainment occurs; by extension, a source or means from which something is obtained.
In legal terminology, مَدَارِكُ الشَّرْعِ refers to the sources and methods by which legal rulings are reached.
- Lane · entry 596
مُدْرَكٌ
Perceived by the senses or apprehended by the intellect.
As a passive participial adjective, it can contrast sensory perception with intellectual apprehension.
- Lane · entry 596
مُدْرِكٌ
The perceptive or apprehending faculty of the mind.
Usually in the technical expression القُوَّةُ المُدْرِكَةُ or its substantivized form.
- Lane · entry 597
مُدْرِكَةٌ
In plural technical usage, the five perceptive faculties or senses.
Occurs in expressions such as المُدْرِكَاتُ الخَمْسُ and المَدَارِكُ الخَمْسُ.
- Lane · entry 598
مُدْرِكَةٌ
A reported anatomical term for the area between the shoulder blades where a cupping vessel is applied.
The transmitted word is textually uncertain and may reflect a corruption of another anatomical term.
- Lane · entry 598
مُدَارِكَةٌ
A woman characterized by persistent or insatiable sexual appetite.
The term describes repeated, closely successive sexual desire or intercourse.
- Lane · entry 599
مُتَدَارِكٌ
Uninterrupted or closely consecutive in its parts.
Unlike مُتَوَاتِرٌ, it denotes succession without the small intervals associated with the latter term.
- Lane · entry 600
مُتَدَارِكٌ
The name of a prosodic pattern and of the sixteenth classical Arabic poetic metre.
The technical term is associated with specified arrangements of moving and quiescent letters and with the metre built on فَاعِلُنْ.
- Lane · entry 600
مُسْتَدْرَكٌ
A supplement or addendum supplied to complete an earlier work or statement.
Used especially for material added to remedy an omission.
- Lane · entry 601
مُسْتَدْرَكٌ
Superfluous or redundant.
A reported usage in some lexicographical and related works.
- Lane · entry 601
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic endpoint or exhaustion sense of أَدْرَكَ is based on Lane’s discussion of a Quranic reading; no unsupplied modern Quran location is used as an example.
The expression concerning knowledge in the Hereafter under تَدَارَكَ has variant readings and several recorded interpretations.
One Lane unit concerning مَدْرَكٌ is retained as ambiguous because its printed headword may be a mistranscription of مُدْرِكٌ or مُدْرَكٌ.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:drk:595:g1:sub2: the expression لَهُ مَدْرَكٌ is materially lexical but cannot be assigned confidently because Lane explicitly questions the headword and suggests alternative mistranscriptions.