Quranic root
كعب
k · ʿ · b
A sound root denoting protrusion, projection, or elevation in a thing.
The lexical development extends from projecting ankle bones and joints to reed joints, breast prominence, cubic or square forms, compact lumps, and figurative eminence. These related developments are not all direct meanings of the Quranic forms.
- Maqāyīs · row 4003
- Mufradāt · row 1253
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 4
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كَعْبَة
kaʿbah
- Part of speech
- Proper 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.
The Sacred House at Mecca, the square or cubic sanctuary known as the Kaaba.
In the Quranic occurrences, this is a proper name for the Sacred House.
- Lane · entry 28304
- Mufradāt · row 1253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:97word 3
“the Kabah”
كَعْب
kaʿb
- 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.
An ankle bone or ankle joint at the junction of the lower leg and foot.
The Quranic dual كَعْبَيْنِ denotes the two ankle bones or joints.
- Lane · entry 28302
- Mufradāt · row 1253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:6word 17
“the ankles”
كَاعِب
kāʿib
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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 young woman whose breasts have begun to swell and become prominent.
The Quranic plural كَوَاعِبَ is substantivized for such women and is paired with the description of being alike in age. The adjective may also qualify the breast itself when it is swelling or prominent.
- Lane · entry 28309
- Mufradāt · row 1253
Selected Quran examples
Quran 78:33word 1
“And splendid companions”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 5:6ٱلْكَعْبَيْنِ ۚthe ankles
- 5:95ٱلْكَعْبَةِthe Kabah
- 5:97ٱلْكَعْبَةَthe Kabah
- 78:33وَكَوَاعِبَAnd splendid companions
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 25 Classical meanings
كَعَبَ
To swell, become prominent, or protrude, especially of the breast.
Used of the breast's development or prominence.
- Lane · entry 28299
كَعَبَ
To strike someone on a hard or projecting part, such as the head.
The object struck is a hard or protuberant part.
- Lane · entry 28299
كَعَبَ
To fill a vessel.
- Lane · entry 28299
كَعَّبَ
To put forth joints or a jointed stem; figuratively, to grow or develop.
The figurative use may describe something growing like a reed putting forth its joints.
- Lane · entry 28300
كَعَّبَ
To furnish a breast-band with projecting edges or borders.
The expression is used of a breast-band belonging to a beast of carriage.
- Lane · entry 28300
كَعَّبَ
To make square or cubic, or to fold a garment firmly into such a form.
Applied to folding cloth and to giving something a square or cubic shape.
- Lane · entry 28300
أَكْعَبَ
To hasten or go away heedlessly, without concern for what is left behind.
A further attested nuance is going away injuriously or without regard for those left behind.
- Lane · entry 28301
كَعْب
A joint, juncture, or place of division in bones.
This is the broader anatomical sense underlying more specific applications of the word.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
In a quadruped, the projecting hock or tarsal region between the lower leg and foot.
The term is applied to the corresponding joint or projecting structure in quadrupeds.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
A play-bone or small die, including the astragalus or an ossicle used in games.
The plural forms include كِعَاب and related game terminology.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
A cube in the terminology of arithmetic.
Technical mathematical usage.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
A compact lump or piece of clarified butter, fat, dates, or milk.
The word can denote a compact quantity or mass of these substances.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
A knot, joint, or intervening section of a reed or cane; similarly, a joint of a reed spear.
The term may refer either to the prominent knot or to the portion between two knots, and may describe regular spear joints.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
A party or faction formed when a people become divided in mind or opinion.
Figurative usage compares the divided groups to separated play-bones or joints of a reed.
- Lane · entry 28302
كَعْب
Eminence, nobility, glory, or elevated standing.
Used in expressions wishing or describing the exaltation of a person's glory; the sense is extended from something elevated.
- Lane · entry 28302
كُعْب
A girl's or woman's breast when swelling, prominent, or protuberant.
- Lane · entry 28303
كَعْبَة
A square or cubic house, chamber, or room.
This is the generic architectural use distinct from the proper name of the Sacred House.
- Lane · entry 28304
كَعَبَات
A house or temple belonging to the tribe of Rabīʿah, around which they performed circuits.
A pre-Islamic cultic house referred to by the plural expression الكَعَبَات or ذُو الكَعَبَات.
- Lane · entry 28304
كُعْبَة
A girl's virginity or maidenhead.
- Lane · entry 28305
كُعْكُبَّة
A hair arrangement made by interlacing four plaits, and the corresponding method of dressing the hair.
The supplied lexical entry includes both the hair arrangement and the associated coiffure.
- Lane · entry 28307
كَعَاب
A virgin girl or woman.
- Lane · entry 28308
مُكَعَّب
Variegated or figured with squares, especially a checkered garment or cloth.
The adjective may be applied to a garment or more generally to something patterned in squares.
- Lane · entry 28310
مُكَعَّب
A garment or piece of cloth folded hard or firmly, in a square form according to one explanation.
- Lane · entry 28310
مُكَعِّب
Hard and projecting, especially of a face.
Attested in the expression وَجْدٌ مُكَعِّبٌ.
- Lane · entry 28310
مُكَعَّبَة
A type of basket.
A specialized noun for the basket known by the names دَوْحَلَّة, شَوْغَرَة, and وَشَخَة.
- Lane · entry 28310
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The inflected Quranic dual كَعْبَيْنِ is normalized to the singular headword كَعْب while retaining its Quranic dual sense.
The supplied Lane discussion questions whether the كُعْكُبّ and كُعْكُبَّة hair terms belong in a separate quadriliteral article; they are retained here because the material lexical entries occur in the supplied primary root record.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
Lane entry 28302, subunit g1:sub5 associates the play-bone meaning with a historical citation written as “Kur v. 92.” The notation is not converted into a modern verse location, and the citation does not securely identify a Quran occurrence of the play-bone lexical item.