Quranic root
فصح
f · ṣ · ḥ
The root centers on becoming free from admixture and thereby clear, pure, or distinct.
The semantic development runs from milk becoming clear of froth or biestings to clear, correct, and intelligible Arabic or speech, and further to things becoming manifest. The festival term الفِصْح is treated separately as a lexical branch not belonging to this core development.
- Maqāyīs · row 3595
- Mufradāt · row 1117
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَفْصَحُ
ʾafṣaḥu
- Part of speech
- Comparative adjective
- 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.
More eloquent, clearer, or more articulate in speech.
A comparative adjective used in أَفْصَحُ مِنِّي لِسَانًا, comparing the clarity and eloquence of Aaron’s speech with Moses’ speech.
- Lane · entry 34297
- Mufradāt · row 1117
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:34word 4
“(is) more eloquent”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 28:34أَفْصَحُ(is) more eloquent
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 22 Classical meanings
فَصُحَ
To become clear and free from admixture; especially, for milk, to lose its froth or become clear of its biestings.
Also used of a thing becoming clear of what was mixed with it.
- Lane · entry 34287
فَصُحَ
To become good, correct, clear, intelligible, or eloquent in language; for a foreigner, to become able to speak Arabic intelligibly.
Said of a person’s language, dialect, or speech; the evidence also records its use for an Arab becoming more eloquent.
- Lane · entry 34287
- Mufradāt · row 1117
فَصُحَ
To become apparent or to come suddenly upon someone, said of daybreak.
Occurs in the expression قَدْ فَصَحَكَ الصُّبْحُ and in the reported variant فَصَحَهُ الصُّبْحُ.
- Lane · entry 34287
فَصَّحَ
To make a foreigner’s tongue speak Arabic.
A causative use referring to bringing someone to Arabic speech.
- Lane · entry 34288
أَفْصَحَ
To become clear or free from turbidity or admixture.
Said of urine becoming clear and of the milk of a ewe, she-goat, or she-camel becoming free from froth or biestings.
- Lane · entry 34289
أَفْصَحَ
To speak clearly, correctly, intelligibly, or eloquently; also, to speak Arabic.
Used absolutely or with speech and language expressions; it can also describe an animal uttering a sound or cry clearly.
- Lane · entry 34289
أَفْصَحَ
To explain something or disclose and reveal one’s meaning.
Used with عَنْ, as in explaining a matter or revealing an intention.
- Lane · entry 34289
أَفْصَحَ
To become clearly apparent, manifest, or evident.
Said of daybreak and, more generally, of a thing becoming evident.
- Lane · entry 34289
أَفْصَحَ
To get clear of or escape from something.
Used with مِنْ; the cited applications include getting clear of winter or another difficult condition.
- Lane · entry 34289
أَفْصَحَ
To enter upon or celebrate the festival called الفِصْح, Easter.
Used in the plural أَفْصَحُوا for Christians, with the festival involving the ending of a fast and eating meat.
- Lane · entry 34289
تَفَصَّحَ
To affect, display, or make use of eloquence in speech.
May imply adopting the appearance or manner of those known for eloquence.
- Lane · entry 34290
اِسْتَفْصَحَ
To judge a word or phrase to be eloquent, chaste, or free from barbarousness.
The extension to judging a person eloquent is reported more tentatively and may be post-classical.
- Lane · entry 34292
اِسْتَفْصَحَ
To ask or desire someone to explain something.
Used with عَنْ in the cited construction اِسْتَفْصَحْتُهُ عَنْ كَذَا.
- Lane · entry 34292
فِصْحٌ
A cloudless day.
The reported explanations differ as to whether the absence of clouds is associated with cold or with its absence.
- Lane · entry 34294
فِصْحٌ
The Christian festival of Easter; also, the Jewish Passover.
Also called عِيدُ الفِصْح; the Christian observance is described as following a period of fasting.
- Lane · entry 34294
فَصِيحٌ
Milk that has become clear of froth or biestings, including milk that comes after the biestings cease.
A lexical adjective applied to purified milk.
- Lane · entry 34295
فَصِيحٌ
Chaste, correct, clear, or eloquent in language; applied to a word, expression, language, tongue, speaker, or writer.
The quality involves freedom from linguistic strangeness or incongruity and, for speech, clarity and freedom from impediment; it may also describe a clear animal cry.
- Lane · entry 34295
فَصِيحٌ
A speaking human being, in contrast with an animal lacking the faculty of speech.
Occurs in the contrast فَصِيحٌ وَصَامِتٌ, where the former denotes human property and the latter animal property.
- Lane · entry 34295
فَصَاحَةٌ
Chasteness, correctness, clarity, or eloquence of a word, language, or speaker.
For words it denotes freedom from strangeness and incongruous combination; for language, freedom from weakness of construction; for a speaker, the faculty of expressing what is intended clearly.
- Lane · entry 34296
أَفْصَحِيَّةٌ
The quality of being more or most chaste, clear, or eloquent in language.
An abstract noun formed from the comparative or superlative adjective أَفْصَحُ.
- Lane · entry 34298
مُفْصَحٌ
A place where the festival of Easter is celebrated.
The term may also refer to a place where the Passover is celebrated.
- Lane · entry 34299
مُفْصِحٌ
Anything clearly apparent, manifest, or evident.
An active-participial adjective used substantivally.
- Lane · entry 34300
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC occurrence is tagged as nominal, while أَفْصَحُ is presented here as the comparative adjective identified by its Quranic construction and lexical evidence.
الفِصْح, the festival term, is listed under the same orthographic root in the lexical evidence but is treated as a separate branch from the root’s core purity-and-clarity development.