Quranic root
جبل
j · b · l
The root centers on gathering or massing something into elevation: a mountain is an elevated mass, and related words extend this idea to large groups, substantial physical form, innate constitution, and fixedness.
The concrete sense of an elevated mass develops into meanings of magnitude, a great company, natural formation or disposition, bodily coarseness, and figurative immovability. Derived verbal uses also extend the root to creating someone with a disposition, entering or approaching a mountain, and encountering a hard obstruction.
- Maqāyīs · row 1074
- Mufradāt · row 224
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 41
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
جَبَلٌ
jabalun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 39 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.
A mountain; a substantial elevated or rocky mass.
Used literally for a mountain or rocky elevation, in both singular and plural forms. Contextual renderings such as “hill” reflect the passage context rather than a separate lexical sense.
- Lane · entry 45912
- Mufradāt · row 224
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:143word 18
“the mountain”
Quran 2:260word 28
“hill”
Quran 34:10word 6
“O mountains”
Quran 101:5word 2
“the mountains”
جِبِلَّةٌ
jibillahun
- 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.
Innate constitution, natural disposition, or the created nature in which beings are formed.
In 26:184, the expression refers to the earlier created beings or to beings constituted according to their innate dispositions.
- Lane · entry 45923
- Mufradāt · row 224
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:184word 4
“and the generations”
A great company, multitude, or people.
In 36:62, the form is understood through the related classical readings as a large company or multitude.
- Lane · entry 45921
- Mufradāt · row 224
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:62word 4
“a multitude”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:260جَبَلٍۢhill
- 7:74ٱلْجِبَالَthe mountains
- 7:143ٱلْجَبَلِthe mountain
- 7:143لِلْجَبَلِto the mountain
- 7:171ٱلْجَبَلَthe mountain
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 38 Classical meanings
جَبَلَهُ
To create or form someone, especially to endow the person with a disposition toward something.
The construction جَبَلَهُ عَلَى كَذَا means to create, adapt, or dispose someone by nature toward a thing.
- Lane · entry 45905
جَبَلَهُ
To compel or constrain someone to do something.
Explained as a figurative extension of being created with a disposition so strong that it operates like compulsion.
- Lane · entry 45905
جَبِلَ
To become mountain-like in size, thickness, coarseness, or roughness.
A figurative Form I use describing a person or thing that acquires substantial or rough form.
- Lane · entry 45905
جَبِلٌ
Blunt or unable to penetrate, especially of iron, a blade, or a tool.
Applied to iron and to the heads or blades of arrows, spears, swords, and axes.
- Lane · entry 45905
- Lane · entry 45907
- Lane · entry 45914
جَابَلَ
To descend to, settle in, or sojourn in a mountain.
A Form III verb describing residence or settlement in mountainous terrain.
- Lane · entry 45906
أَجْبَلَ
To come, go, or betake oneself to a mountain.
A Form IV verb of movement toward a mountain.
- Lane · entry 45907
أَجْبَلَ
To reach hard ground or stone while digging.
A figurative Form IV use describing a digger encountering a hard obstruction.
- Lane · entry 45907
- Lane · entry 45912
أَجْبَلَ
To encounter difficulty or blockage in expression, producing no original or fresh diction.
A figurative Form IV use concerning a poet or verbal composition.
- Lane · entry 45907
أَجْبَلَ
To fail to attain a sought or desired thing.
Used of seeking something and falling short of obtaining it.
- Lane · entry 45907
أَجْبَلَ
To refuse or withhold something when asked, and not give it.
A figurative Form IV use of refusal or non-compliance.
- Lane · entry 45907
أَجْبَلَ
To find someone fixed and niggardly, or to describe a niggard.
A figurative use associating fixedness with stinginess.
- Lane · entry 45907
- Lane · entry 45912
تَجَبَّلَ
To enter a mountain or the mountains.
A Form V verb; it may describe a group entering mountainous terrain.
- Lane · entry 45908
جَبْلٌ
Thick, coarse, rough, or not finely made; by extension, substantial in build or left thick rather than finely pared.
Applied to physical build, bodily make, a hump, an arrow, or an object such as a sword that has not been made thin.
- Lane · entry 45909
جَبْلٌ
The court or open area of a house.
A nominal use synonymous with سَاحَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 45909
جُبْلٌ
Dry trees.
A separate nominal use reported for the vocalized form جُبْلٌ.
- Lane · entry 45910
جِبْلٌ
Much or numerous; a large or numerous group, such as a tribe or herd.
The word can describe abundant property or cattle as well as a numerous human group.
- Lane · entry 45911
جَبَلٌ
A rock, stone, or rocky tract, including a hard mass encountered by a digger.
A broader concrete use related to the mountain sense; it can apply to a rocky elevation that is not a full mountain.
- Lane · entry 45912
جَبَلٌ
An immovable or firmly settled person.
A figurative use of جَبَلٌ for someone who does not move from his place.
- Lane · entry 45912
جَبَلٌ
The lord, chief, or learned man of a people or company.
A figurative social use of the mountain noun for a person of prominence or authority.
- Lane · entry 45912
ابْنَةُ الجَبَلِ
A serpent, literally associated with the mountain.
An idiomatic expression based on the serpent's habit of remaining in mountainous places.
- Lane · entry 45912
جَبَلٌ
A calamity or misfortune.
A figurative use reported as an assumed tropical extension.
- Lane · entry 45912
جَبَلٌ
A bow made from the nabʿ tree.
A figurative designation connected with the tree's association with the mountain.
- Lane · entry 45912
جَبَلٌ
An echo.
A figurative use reported for the noun.
- Lane · entry 45912
جَبْلَةٌ
The face, its skin, or the outward-facing part of it.
The word can denote the visible or outward aspect turned toward an observer.
- Lane · entry 45916
جَبْلَةٌ
A vice, fault, defect, or blemish.
A separate nominal use of the vocalized form جَبْلَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 45916
جَبْلَةٌ
Strength.
A nominal use reported independently from the senses of face and constitution.
- Lane · entry 45916
جَبْلَةٌ
Hardness of the earth or ground.
A nominal use referring specifically to the hardness of soil or terrain.
- Lane · entry 45916
جُبْلَةٌ
A camel's hump.
A nominal use for the raised mass of a camel's back.
- Lane · entry 45917
جِبْلَةٌ
The origin, stock, or underlying formation of a created thing.
A broader Classical use of جِبْلَةٌ for what something is constituted from or derived from.
- Lane · entry 45918
جِبْلَةٌ
The fundamental nature or composition of a mountain.
A specialized use referring to a mountain's constitution rather than to innate disposition generally.
- Lane · entry 45918
جِبْلَةٌ
The quality of a garment's thread and weaving.
Used in the expression ثَوْبٌ جَيِّدُ الجِبْلَةِ.
- Lane · entry 45918
جِبْلَةٌ
A large, thick, coarse, or rough man.
A derived nominal use describing substantial physical build.
- Lane · entry 45918
جَبَلِيٌّ
Mountainous; of or relating to a mountain or mountains.
An attributive adjective contrasted with سُهْلِيٌّ, “of the plain.”
- Lane · entry 45924
جِبِلِّيٌّ
Natural, innate, essential, or resulting from the original constitution.
An attributive adjective for qualities arising from the Creator-ordered natural disposition.
- Lane · entry 45925
جِبَالٌ
The body, with or without its bodily members.
A figurative plural use likening bodily mass to a mountain.
- Lane · entry 45926
جَبِيلٌ
A man with a bad or ugly face.
A figurative adjectival use concerning facial appearance.
- Lane · entry 45927
جُبُلَّةٌ
Much, abundance, a large quantity or number, or—more broadly—anything in substantial amount.
A general quantitative use distinct from the Quranic constitution sense of جِبِلَّةٌ.
- Lane · entry 45922
مَجْبُولٌ
Large, big, or substantial in physical make.
Applied to a man figuratively as though he were a mountain.
- Lane · entry 45930
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC group for جِبِلَّةٌ includes the occurrence at 36:62, while the lexical evidence records several related classical readings there, including جِبِلٌّ; the multitude sense is therefore presented with an explicit reading/form caution rather than treated as identical to the constitution sense.
Lane's Quran citation for the multitude sense uses historical citation notation; the modern location used here is supplied independently by QAC.