Quranic root
فخر
f · kh · r
The root centers on greatness joined with antiquity or inherited distinction, giving rise to glorying, boasting, excellence, and marked largeness.
Boasting is explained as recounting ancient or inherited distinction and claiming superiority. Related Classical usages extend the idea to excellent quality, bodily or organic largeness, and a few specialized applications; فَخَّارٌ ‘pottery’ is treated as an exceptional branch outside the central root principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 3536
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
فَخُورٌ
fakhūrun
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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.
Habitually boastful; given to magnifying oneself by boasting of possessions, status, lineage, qualities, or achievements.
An adjective describing a person characterized by repeated or excessive boasting and self-exaltation.
- Mufradāt · row 1094
- Lane · entry 33473
Selected Quran examples
فَخَّارٌ
fakhkhārun
- 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.
Baked or fired clay; pottery or earthen vessels made from it.
In the Quranic expression كَالْفَخَّارِ, the word denotes fired pottery or fired clay, in contrast with clay before firing.
- Lane · entry 33469
- Mufradāt · row 1094
Selected Quran examples
Quran 55:14word 5
“like the pottery”
تَفَاخُرٌ
tafākhurun
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Mutual boasting; competing with one another for superiority through claims of glory, status, lineage, qualities, or other grounds of pride.
A reciprocal or collective construction describing parties who boast against or vie with one another.
- Lane · entry 33459
- Mufradāt · row 1094
Selected Quran examples
Quran 57:20word 8
“and boasting”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:36فَخُورًا(and) [a] boastful
- 11:10فَخُورٌ(and) boastful
- 31:18فَخُورٍۢboaster
- 55:14كَٱلْفَخَّارِlike the pottery
- 57:20وَتَفَاخُرٌۢand boasting
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 21 Classical meanings
فَخَرَ
To glory in or boast of qualities, deeds, ancestry, possessions, or rank; to arrogate greatness; to contend with or excel another on such grounds.
Used with بِ for the thing or quality boasted of and with عَلَى for boasting against or claiming superiority over another.
- Lane · entry 33454
فَخِرَ
To disdain or scorn.
- Lane · entry 33454
فَاخَرَ
To vie or compete with another for superiority in glory, boasting, excellence, or nobility, and to surpass the other in that contest.
The contest may concern boasting generally or the nobility and generosity of one's parentage.
- Lane · entry 33456
أَفْخَرَ
To judge or make someone to excel another in glory, boasting, or excellence.
Constructed with عَلَى for the person over whom superiority is judged or established.
- Lane · entry 33457
أَفْخَرَ
Of a woman, to bring forth offspring of excellent or goodly quality.
This is a specialized usage concerning childbirth and the quality of the offspring.
- Lane · entry 33457
تَفَخَّرَ
To magnify oneself; to become proud, haughty, or disdainful.
A self-directed or inchoative expression of pride and self-exaltation.
- Lane · entry 33458
اِفْتَخَرَ
Of herbs, to become tall.
A reported figurative or tropical application, retained as a specialized Classical usage.
- Lane · entry 33460
اِسْتَفْخَرَ
To buy a garment, cloth, or other thing of excellent quality; also to use such a relation in connection with marriage.
In marriage usage, the evidence specifies giving in marriage and apparently also taking in marriage.
- Lane · entry 33461
فَخْرٌ
Glory or excellence; also a disposition or occasion for boasting.
The word may denote the quality itself or, in context, the tendency to boast of it.
- Lane · entry 33462
فُخْرٌ
Thickness of an udder with contracted teat openings and little milk.
- Lane · entry 33463
فِخْرَةٌ
A manner or instance of glorying or boasting.
- Lane · entry 33465
فَخُورٌ
Of a she-camel, ewe, or she-goat: having a large udder with contracted teat openings and little milk, or yielding all the milk it has with none remaining.
A specialized description of female livestock and their udder or milk yield.
- Lane · entry 33467
فَخُورٌ
Of a palm tree, large in trunk and thick in its branches.
- Lane · entry 33467
فَخُورٌ
Of a horse, or of a man, large in the yard and long therein; of a penis, large.
A specialized anatomical or bodily description.
- Lane · entry 33467
فَخِيرٌ
One who vies, competes, or contends with another in glorying or boasting, especially in claims of nobility or superiority.
- Lane · entry 33468
فَخِيرٌ
One overcome in a contest of boasting or glorying.
A resultative or passive application of the same boasting contest.
- Lane · entry 33468
فَاخِرٌ
One who glories or boasts much.
An epithet for a person characterized by abundant boasting.
- Lane · entry 33473
فَاخِرٌ
Good, goodly, superb, or excellent; of excellent quality.
Applied to a thing or anything of notably high quality.
- Lane · entry 33473
فَاخِرٌ
Of unripe dates: large and without stones.
A specialized description of dates, explained figuratively as seeming to boast over others.
- Lane · entry 33473
فَاخُورٌ
A species of sweet-smelling plant, identified in one usage with الريحان and in another with a broad-leaved marum.
A botanical term with variant identifications in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 33475
مَفْخَرَةٌ
A thing in which one glories or boasts; a cause of boasting, such as a generous quality or action inherited through generations.
Also used for an inherited noble quality or memorable action; plural مَفَاخِرُ.
- Lane · entry 33476
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic adjective فَخُورٌ, the verbal noun تَفَاخُرٌ, and the pottery noun فَخَّارٌ are kept as distinct forms; the pottery sense is not derived from the Quranic meaning of boastfulness.