Quranic root
دخن
d · kh · n
The root centers on smoke produced by fuel and extends by resemblance to clouded color, spoiled or corrupted condition, hostility, and troubled outward peace.
The primary image is smoke rising from combustion. From it develop usages for smoke-tainted or dusky things, fumigation, internal corruption or rancor, and other states viewed as smoke-like or troubled.
- Maqāyīs · row 1730
- Mufradāt · row 462
- Lane · entry 410
- 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.
دُخَان
dukhān
- 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.
Smoke; smoke-like vapor or matter.
In 41:11, the heaven is described as resembling smoke, an image associated with its lack of cohesion. The ordinary concrete sense is also supported in the Quranic occurrences.
- Lane · entry 410
- Mufradāt · row 462
Selected Quran examples
Quran 41:11word 6
“smoke”
Quran 44:10word 5
“smoke”
Dearth, drought, sterility, or hunger.
A reported Quranic interpretation applies this figurative sense to the دخان passage, rather than taking the word as literal smoke.
- Lane · entry 410
Selected Quran examples
Quran 44:10word 5
“smoke”
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 32 Classical meanings
دَخَنَ
Of a fire, to emit smoke; of smoke or dust, to rise, spread, or diffuse.
The verb is used with fire, smoke, dust, and similar matter as its subject.
- Lane · entry 398
دَخِنَ
Of a fire, to become smoky or vehement.
Describes a fire whose combustion is spoiled and whose smoke is raised by the addition of fresh or green wood.
- Lane · entry 398
دَخِنَ
Of food or meat, to become infected with smoke and acquire its odor.
Used of food while being roasted or cooked when smoke from the cooking vessel predominates over its flavor.
- Lane · entry 398
دَخِنَ
Of wine or another beverage, to become altered for the worse in odor.
A figurative extension of smoke-tainting.
- Lane · entry 398
دَخِنَ
To become dusky or dingy, inclining to blackness.
Used of plants and animals, as though they were overspread with smoke.
- Lane · entry 398
دَخِنَ
Of a nature or disposition, to become bad, corrupt, or wicked.
A figurative extension from smoke-tainted or spoiled matter.
- Lane · entry 398
دَخَّنَ
To smoke, make smoky, or fumigate something or someone; to smoke out a group.
The construction includes applying smoke or fumigant to food, places, garments, or persons; in one reported use, smoke was used to kill people confined in a cave.
- Lane · entry 399
أَدْخَنَ
Of grain or seed-produce, to become hard and full in the grain while taking on a slight dusky color.
A specialized agricultural usage.
- Lane · entry 400
تَدَخَّنَ
To fumigate oneself or use fumigation.
Used of a person fumigating himself with a substance used as incense or fumigant.
- Lane · entry 401
دُخْن
A kind of grain or millet; also a single grain of it.
The feminine form with ـة can denote one individual grain.
- Lane · entry 403
دَخَن
The appearance of conflict, faction, sedition, discord, or similar disturbance.
A figurative noun derived from the imagery of smoke or a troubled fire.
- Lane · entry 404
دَخَن
Alteration for the worse in intellect, religion, or the grounds of a person's claim to respect or honor.
A figurative expression for underlying or spreading corruption.
- Lane · entry 404
دَخَن
A dusky or dingy coloration inclining to blackness; in a sword, a dark broad-side blackness or its wavy grain and streaking.
Applied to animals, garments, and swords; the sword usage includes its variegated patterning.
- Lane · entry 404
دَخَن
Rancor, malevolence, malice, or spite.
A figurative inner quality associated with smoke or clouded appearance.
- Lane · entry 404
دَخَن
Badness, corruptness, or wickedness of nature or disposition.
A figurative character description.
- Lane · entry 404
دَخِن
Smoke-tainted, especially of cooked food or meat.
Describes food or meat that has acquired a predominant smoky odor during cooking.
- Lane · entry 405
دَخِن
Altered for the worse in odor, of wine or another beverage.
An adjective for a beverage affected by an unpleasant change of smell.
- Lane · entry 405
دَخِن
Bad, corrupt, or wicked in nature or disposition.
Used in the construction دَخِنُ الخُلُقِ for a person characterized by a corrupt disposition.
- Lane · entry 405
دُخْنَة
Incense or another substance used for fumigation.
Used to fumigate houses, tents, chambers, clothes, and similar objects.
- Lane · entry 406
أَبُو دُخْنَة
A certain bird whose color resembles that of a lark or a dust-colored bird.
A lexical bird name; the reported color comparison varies among authorities or manuscripts.
- Lane · entry 406
دُخْنَاء
A species of sparrow or small bird.
A bird name; the entry cross-references a related form دُخْنَان.
- Lane · entry 407
دَخْنَان
Intensely hot, of a day or night; of a night, also dusky or dingy.
The heat is described as oppressive enough to take away the breath; the dusky-night sense is a parallel comparison with smoke.
- Lane · entry 408
دُخَان
In the construction “a truce upon smoke,” an outward calm or truce that lacks reconciliation and conceals inner corruption or rancor.
A conventional figurative expression for unstable or impure peace.
- Lane · entry 410
دُخَان
In the epithet “the two sons of smoke,” Ghani and Bahilah.
The epithet refers to the reported smoking-out and killing of a party of people in a cave by the two tribes.
- Lane · entry 410
دُخَان
Evil or mischief arising from an affair.
A figurative use in which the arising of trouble is pictured as smoke rising.
- Lane · entry 410
دُخَان
Tobacco.
A later or current application of the word, generally with a pronunciation differing from the classical form.
- Lane · entry 410
دَاخِن
Firewood that produces smoke.
A concrete noun naming smoke-producing fuel.
- Lane · entry 412
دَاخِن
Bad, corrupt, or wicked in nature or disposition.
A figurative use in the construction خُلُقٌ دَاخِنٌ.
- Lane · entry 412
دَاخِنَة
A chimney or hollow channel through which smoke passes.
Includes apertures or channels made over frying pans, fireplaces, and bath furnaces; the plural is دَوَاخِن.
- Lane · entry 413
أَدْخَن
Dusky or dingy, inclining to blackness.
An adjective applied especially to a ram and similar animals; its feminine is دَخْنَاء.
- Lane · entry 414
مَدْخَن
A place of smoke.
A place characterized by or containing smoke.
- Lane · entry 415
مِدْخَنَة
A vessel for fumigation or incense.
A fumigation vessel, comparable to a مجمرة; its plural is مَدَاخِن.
- Lane · entry 417
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The word in 44:10 has the supplied contextual gloss “smoke,” while the lexical evidence also preserves a reported Quranic interpretation of the passage as dearth, drought, sterility, or hunger.
The historical Quran citation in the lexical evidence is not independently transcribed as a modern verse location; the example uses the independently supplied QAC occurrence 44:10.