Quranic root
دول
d · w · l
The root centers on movement or transfer from one place, party, or condition to another, alongside a related branch of loosening, wearing out, and deterioration.
The transfer branch develops into alternation, circulation, changing fortune, and things passed among people by turns. The second branch yields meanings of flaccidity, wear, and dried or degraded vegetation.
- Maqāyīs · row 1864
- Lane · entry 1628
- Lane · entry 1633
- Lane · entry 1643
- 2
- 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.
دَاوَلَ
dāwala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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 make something pass among people by turns; to alternate its allocation from one party to another.
In the Quranic construction, the object is made to circulate or alternate among people or parties; the form is active, imperfect Form III.
- Lane · entry 1630
- Mufradāt · row 493
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:140word 11
“We alternate them”
دُولَةٌ
dūlahun
- 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 share or possession passed around in turn; in the Quranic passage, wealth or spoils that should circulate rather than remain confined among the rich.
Used of something taken or held by turns among a group, specifically in the distribution context of 59:7. The Quranic form is presented as دُولَةٌ, while Classical sources also record the related form دَوْلَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 1638
- Mufradāt · row 493
Selected Quran examples
Quran 59:7word 20
“a (perpetual) circulation”
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 30 Classical meanings
دَالَ
To turn or come round; of days or time, to come round in succession.
Form I verb; the cited expression دالتِ الأَيَّامُ describes days coming round in their turns.
- Lane · entry 1628
دَوْلٌ
A change or turn of time or fortune from one condition to another, especially a favorable turn.
A verbal noun associated with دَالَ; this meaning is kept distinct from the Quranic noun دُولَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 1628
دَالَ
To become notorious or famous, whether favorably or unfavorably.
The meaning is explained as becoming a source of renown or notoriety.
- Lane · entry 1628
دَالَ
To become old, worn out, or faded; figuratively, for affection, to begin to wear away.
Used of a garment or cloth and figuratively of love or affection.
- Lane · entry 1628
دَوَّلَ
To write the letter د, dāl.
The Classical entry gives only the brief example “he wrote a د.”
- Lane · entry 1629
أَدَالَ
To give someone a turn of good fortune or enable him to prevail over an opponent; to grant victory or aid against an enemy.
A causative construction in which fortune or superiority is transferred from one party to another; the same imagery can be applied figuratively to the earth prevailing over those who consume it.
- Lane · entry 1631
تَدَاوَلَ
To take, do, handle, or share something by turns; to alternate or succeed one another.
Used of affairs, work, objects passed from hand to hand, falsehood being exchanged, winds acting successively, land being pastured in rotation, and times or things replacing one another.
- Lane · entry 1632
تَدَاوَلَ
To use something repeatedly, time after time or turn after turn.
Reported by the entry as a possible post-Classical extension, especially of a word or phrase.
- Lane · entry 1632
اِنْدَالَ
To move or shift from one place to another.
Used of a people or party changing its place.
- Lane · entry 1633
اِنْدَالَ
Of abdominal contents, to come out through a puncture or rupture.
The entry specifically describes intestines or the peritoneum protruding after the belly has been pierced.
- Lane · entry 1633
اِنْدَالَ
Of the belly, to become wide, low-hanging, flaccid, or pendulous.
Used of abdominal slackness or distension; the low or hanging position is part of the described condition.
- Lane · entry 1633
اِنْدَالَ
To dangle, sway to and fro, or hang.
Used of a thing that moves loosely or hangs down.
- Lane · entry 1633
دَالٌ
The Arabic letter د, dāl.
A letter-name, with masculine and feminine agreement and corresponding plural forms reported in the lexical entry.
- Lane · entry 1634
دَالٌ
A fat woman.
A separate lexical use of the homographic noun.
- Lane · entry 1634
دَوْلٌ
A bucket.
Reported as an Arabicized or transposed form related to دَلْوٌ; its etymological status is not certain.
- Lane · entry 1635
دَوَلٌ
An epithet for arrows received by members of a herd successively, one after another.
Used in an idiomatic description of a wild animal seeking refuge from arrows distributed among the herd in turn.
- Lane · entry 1636
دَالَةٌ
Notoriety or fame.
A noun corresponding to the lexical branch of becoming notorious or famous; it is kept distinct from the verb دَالَ.
- Lane · entry 1637
دَوْلَةٌ
A turn or change of fortune, especially a favorable turn; a share or turn in wealth, or a turn to prevail in war.
The Classical evidence includes a broader transition from one condition to another and reports a distinction in which wealth is associated with دُولَةٌ and war with دَوْلَةٌ, though the forms are also treated as overlapping.
- Lane · entry 1638
دَوْلَةٌ
A dynasty, state, empire, or monarchy.
A post-Classical political extension of the noun.
- Lane · entry 1638
دَوْلَةٌ
The crop or a stomach portion of a bird, including a term that may refer to the gizzard or related digestive organ.
An anatomical bird term explained through the flaccidity or hanging of the organ.
- Lane · entry 1638
دَوْلَةٌ
The faucial bag of a male camel.
An anatomical term for the pendulous throat pouch.
- Lane · entry 1638
دَوْلَةٌ
A vessel like a leathern water-bag with a narrow mouth.
A concrete object-name recorded as a separate Classical use.
- Lane · entry 1638
دَوْلَةٌ
The side of the belly; in one expression, the navel.
An anatomical use with the cited expression referring to the size of the navel or abdominal side.
- Lane · entry 1638
دُوَلَةٌ
A calamity or misfortune.
A distinct noun, with variant vocalizations and plural forms reported in the entry.
- Lane · entry 1640
دَوِيلٌ
A plant that has dried after one or two years and become worthless; also a broken or blackened plant.
Especially used of dry nasī and sabaṭ vegetation, though the entry also extends it to any plant in the described condition.
- Lane · entry 1643
دَوَالِيُّ
A variety of grapes from al-Ṭāʾif, black with a reddish tinge.
A regional cultivar name.
- Lane · entry 1644
دَوَالَيْكَ
By turns, turn after turn; let the action be done successively by one and another.
An invariable expression that may be understood imperatively or descriptively, with the action and its object supplied from context.
- Lane · entry 1645
دَوَالَيْكَ
To walk with an affected, swaying, self-conscious gait; in the reported usage, also to urge or press oneself forward in walking.
The gait sense is reported with the definite article and is accompanied by a lexical caution that it may reflect confusion with a form in another root.
- Lane · entry 1645
مُنْدَالٌ
Dangling, swaying to and fro, or hanging.
A derived or transposed form whose morphological analysis is disputed in the entry.
- Lane · entry 1646
مُتَدَاوَلٌ
Commonly used or current, especially of language in ordinary circulation.
A modern or post-Classical usage, as in commonly used speech or wording.
- Lane · entry 1647
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun is presented under the QAC form دُولَةٌ. Classical evidence also records دَوْلَةٌ, with both overlapping usage and reported specializations involving wealth and war; these headwords are therefore kept distinct.
The Form II entry is extremely terse, so its preserved meaning is limited to writing the letter دāl as stated in the evidence.
The repeated-use sense of تَدَاوَلَ and the political sense of دَوْلَةٌ are explicitly reported as later or post-Classical extensions.