Quranic root
غول
gh · w · l
An unsuspected taking or seizure: something removes or destroys a person or thing from an unperceived quarter.
The root develops from covert seizure into destruction, disappearance, misleading distance, harmful consequences, ghoulish beings, and concealed instruments of attack.
- Maqāyīs · row 3480
- Lane · entry 30168
- Lane · entry 30169
- Lane · entry 30177
- 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.
غَوْل
ghawl
- 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 harmful or insidious effect or consequence; in the wine of Paradise, no intoxicating, headache-producing, mind-clouding, or distressing aftereffect is present.
Used in لَا فِيهَا غَوْلٌ to deny the adverse effects associated with intoxicating wine, including headache, intoxication, loss of reason, and related distress or molestation.
- Lane · entry 30168
- Mufradāt · row 1076
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:47word 3
“(is) bad effect”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 37:47غَوْلٌۭ(is) bad effect
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 41 Classical meanings
غَالَ
To destroy, seize, or carry away unexpectedly; said of a cause, death, or a tract of land that causes people to perish or go astray.
The object may be a person or thing, and the taking may occur from an unknown quarter or without the person's awareness.
- Lane · entry 30162
غَالَ
To corrupt, impair, or destroy; of wine, to deprive someone of reason or bodily soundness.
A causative use in which a substance or other agent produces impairment or ruin.
- Lane · entry 30162
تَغَوَّلَ
To exceed the measure of clothing so that it falls short.
A construction used of a tall woman whose garments are too short for her.
- Lane · entry 30162
غَالَ
To withhold or debar someone from coming.
Attested in the expression مَا غَالَكَ عَنَّا.
- Lane · entry 30162
غَالَ
To steal something.
A lexical variant also recorded under the related form غِيلَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 30162
غَوَّلَ
Of a desert, to make its roads unapparent and cause its travelers to go astray.
Used of a waterless or trackless desert whose routes are difficult to discern.
- Lane · entry 30163
مُغَاوَلَةٌ
Hastening, striving to be first, or trying to accomplish or obtain something before others.
May apply to journeying or to competing in action.
- Lane · entry 30164
تَغَوَّلَ
To change or vary in state, form, or appearance; to become altered, dubious, or confused.
Used of a person, a desert, or an affair; a person may be described as assuming a ghoul-like appearance.
- Lane · entry 30165
غُول
A ghoul or destructive demon-like being; by extension, anything that unexpectedly destroys a person or causes the intellect to depart.
Traditional descriptions include a being appearing in various forms, misleading travelers, and destroying them; the lexical entry also records male jinn usage and related senses.
- Lane · entry 30169
تَغَاوَلَ
To hasten together, vie with one another, or strive to be beforehand.
A reciprocal construction describing competition in speed or in making a sudden attack.
- Lane · entry 30166
اِغْتَالَ
To kill covertly or when the victim is unaware.
A Form VIII verb synonymous with قتلَ in this use.
- Lane · entry 30167
اِغْتَالَ
To deprive of strength or vehemence through satiety.
A figurative expression said of a hawk whose energy and force of flight are not diminished by having eaten its fill.
- Lane · entry 30167
اِغْتَالَ
Of land, to make the footing or course of travelers unapparent.
The obscuring is attributed to the land's great extent and breadth.
- Lane · entry 30167
اِغْتَالَ
To overtake someone in running.
A meaning reported in an additional lexical citation.
- Lane · entry 30167
اِغْتَالَ
To fill something until the available space becomes too narrow to contain it.
A reported extended meaning; the attestation is attributed to an additional lexical source.
- Lane · entry 30167
غَوْل
The far extent of a desert or land, especially an expanse that causes travelers to disappear or perish.
Used in expressions describing land that appears small at a distance but extends very far.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
Great height or exceptional extension, including the height of a tall woman.
A nominal expression such as ذَاتُ غَوْلٍ is used of a tall woman.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
In a tentatively interpreted phrase, exceptional swiftness, said of a she-camel.
This meaning is restricted to the reported phrase نَاقَةُ غَوْلِ النَّجَاءِ and is uncertain in the source.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
Unfaithfulness or unfaithful conduct.
A Classical Arabic nominal use distinct from the Quranic sense of harmful aftereffect.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
A cunning or bad action.
Attested in the expression أَتَى غَوْلًا.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
A large quantity or expanse of earth or sand.
Used in descriptions of extensive sand or land.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
A distinctive collection of talh trees.
A specialized botanical use describing a stand of trees with nothing else mixed among them.
- Lane · entry 30168
غَوْل
A low or depressed part of the earth or land.
A geographical nominal use.
- Lane · entry 30168
غُول
Destruction, death, the decree of death, or a calamity or misfortune.
A distinct vocalized noun from غَوْل; it may denote either the destructive event or the misfortune resulting from it.
- Lane · entry 30169
غُول
A serpent, especially in a poetic description of its fangs.
The usage may be literal or an exaggeration, and some interpreters understand the poetic reference as meaning devils.
- Lane · entry 30169
غِيلَة
Covert or opportunistic slaying.
A verbal noun from اِغْتَالَ, originally preserving the root vowel represented by و.
- Lane · entry 30170
غَوْلَان
A slender pasture plant of the ḥamḍ kind, compared with kali or glasswort.
A botanical noun.
- Lane · entry 30171
غَوْلَان
The singular of غَوَالِينُ, the ribs or rib-like structural members of a ship or boat.
A specialized nautical use.
- Lane · entry 30171
غَائِل
Destructive or engulfing, especially of land that destroys its inhabitant through its great extent.
An active-participle adjective applied to land.
- Lane · entry 30172
غَائِلَة
Caused to disappear, hidden, concealed, or stolen.
A feminine adjectival use describing something made absent or removed from view.
- Lane · entry 30172
غَائِلَة
Bad or corrupt conduct, evil, mischief, or a harmful consequence.
Also used in the expression أَخَافُ غَائِلَتَهُ, ‘I fear its harmful result.’
- Lane · entry 30173
غَائِلَة
Wickedness, disobedience, or running away, especially of a slave.
A specialized legal and social use; its plural in this sense is غَوَائِلُ.
- Lane · entry 30173
غَائِلَة
A third party's right to a slave that voids the sale and obliges the seller to return the price.
A specialized defect affecting the validity of a slave sale.
- Lane · entry 30173
غَوَائِل
Places of destruction.
A plural use of غَائِلَة.
- Lane · entry 30173
غَائِلَة
A hole or perforation in a watering-trough or tank through which the water escapes.
A specialized term for a defect that causes stored water to pass away.
- Lane · entry 30173
غَيِّلَة
A far-extending tract of land.
A descriptive use applied to land.
- Lane · entry 30175
أَغْوَل
More or most destructive.
A comparative or superlative adjective, including the figurative comparison of anger with other destroyers.
- Lane · entry 30176
أَغْوَل
Soft, plentiful, and easy living.
Used in the expression عَيْشٌ أَغْوَلُ.
- Lane · entry 30176
مِغْوَل
A concealed knife, slender sword, or similar iron weapon used to destroy or kill unexpectedly.
The weapon may be hidden within or sheathed by a whip, or worn concealed beneath clothing.
- Lane · entry 30177
مِغْوَل
A quality of outstripping or surpassing, said of a mare that leaves other horses behind.
A figurative adjectival construction based on the weapon's destructive effect.
- Lane · entry 30177
مُغَاوِل
Having gone far in journeying.
Used in the phrase نَزَلُوا مُغَاوِلِينَ, describing travelers who alighted after a long journey.
- Lane · entry 30178
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun is غَوْل, meaning a harmful effect; it should not be conflated by vocalization with غُول, the classical ghoul or demon.
The Quranic lexical sense groups closely related traditional explanations—headache, intoxication, loss of reason, and distress—as manifestations of one denied harmful aftereffect.
The interpretation of نَاقَةُ غَوْلِ النَّجَاءِ as referring to exceptional swiftness is tentative.