Quranic root
كبد
k · b · d
The root denotes intensity, force, and hardship, with كَبِدٌ naming the liver and كَبَدٌ naming difficulty or distress.
The lexical network extends from the liver and its pain to endurance under difficulty, while the liver's central bodily position motivates meanings of middle, main part, and central location.
- Maqāyīs · row 3917
- Mufradāt · row 1231
- Lane · entry 27781
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- 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.
كَبَد
kabad
- 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.
Hardship, distress, or affliction; the difficult condition in which human life is lived.
In the construction فِي كَبَدٍ, as in 90:4; the sense includes the state of enduring the difficulties of worldly life.
- Lane · entry 27780
- Mufradāt · row 1231
Selected Quran examples
Quran 90:4word 5
“hardship”
A right, upright, and properly proportioned state of human constitution.
An alternative interpretation of فِي كَبَدٍ; the reported explanations include upright bipedal posture and just proportion.
- Lane · entry 27780
The position of the human fetus in the womb before birth, with its head toward the mother's head and later turning for delivery.
Another reported interpretation of the construction فِي كَبَدٍ; the packet supplies no separate Quran location for this interpretation.
- Lane · entry 27780
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 90:4كَبَدٍhardship
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 27 Classical meanings
كَبَدَ
To hit, strike, or hurt someone's liver.
A transitive Form I verbal use; the object is the liver.
- Lane · entry 27775
كَبَدَ
To affect severely, distress, or straiten someone; literally, to smite the liver.
A tropical Form I use, attested especially of intense cold and its effects.
- Lane · entry 27775
كَبِدَ
To suffer pain or a disease of the liver.
Form I intransitive use; the related passive expression denotes being afflicted in the liver.
- Lane · entry 27775
كَبِدَ
To be large or thick in the middle or upper part of the belly, and consequently slow in movement.
A Form I bodily-description use, applied to a person or to anything large and thick in its middle.
- Lane · entry 27775
كَابَدَ
To endure, undergo, or struggle against a thing's difficulty, trouble, or severity; to contend against opposition.
Form III; it is used of braving a difficult night or other severe circumstance and of mutual contention between adversaries.
- Lane · entry 27777
تَكَبَّدَ
To direct oneself or one's course toward an affair, town, country, or the middle or main part of a desert.
A Form V tropical use of directing oneself toward a destination or central region.
- Lane · entry 27778
تَكَبَّدَ
To become thick or coagulated, like liver.
Used of milk and other beverages.
- Lane · entry 27778
تَكَبَّدَ
For the sun or a star to reach the middle of the sky and culminate.
A Form V astronomical use, including the sun's position in the central sky.
- Lane · entry 27778
كَبِد
The liver, the fleshy organ on the right side of the lungs.
The standard anatomical noun; it has recognized variant vocalizations and feminine, and occasionally masculine, grammatical usage.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِد
The external side or the place corresponding to the liver.
A tropical anatomical extension, referring to the outside of the body near the liver.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِد
The inside or interior of an animal as a whole.
An attributed tropical extension of the anatomical meaning.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِد
The interior of a mountain, including a cave or ravine within it.
A tropical spatial use.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِدُ الأَرْضِ
The interior or hidden belly of the earth, especially its minerals, gold, silver, and other treasures.
A conventional tropical expression for subterranean contents.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِد
The middle or main part of something.
The extension is used of the middle of the sea, an archery butt, a tract of sand, and a central locality.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِدُ السَّمَاءِ
The middle or meridian of the sky, including the central part facing the observer.
A specialized spatial expression; كُبَيْدَاءُ السَّمَاءِ and كُبَيْدَاتٌ are also reported.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِد
The air or atmosphere.
A reported tropical use.
- Lane · entry 27781
كَبِدُ القَوْسِ
The handle or central section of a bow, including the part along which the arrow runs.
The precise extent varies in the lexical descriptions, but it denotes the bow's central grip or adjoining central section.
- Lane · entry 27781
تُضْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ أَكْبَادُ الإِبِلِ
A person to whom people journey in pursuit of knowledge or another valued attainment.
An idiomatic expression literally referring to the livers of camels being directed or driven toward someone.
- Lane · entry 27781
سُودُ الأَكْبَادِ
A designation for enemies, figuratively black-livered because of rancor or malevolence.
An idiomatic plural expression based on the liver as the supposed source of enmity.
- Lane · entry 27781
كُبَاد
Pain, disease, or complaint of the liver.
A deverbal noun naming the illness of the affected organ.
- Lane · entry 27783
كَبَّاد
A species of lemon or related citrus plant.
A collective botanical noun with a singular form in ـة.
- Lane · entry 27785
كَابِد
A struggle or sustained endurance against difficulty; a state of mutual contention.
A substantivized form associated with كَابَدَ, also used of adversaries struggling against one another in a contest or dispute.
- Lane · entry 27786
أَكْبَد
Large or thick in the middle or upper belly; having a prominent or raised liver region.
The related feminine كَبْدَاءُ is also applied to a she-camel or to a tract of sand described as large in the middle.
- Lane · entry 27787
كَبْدَاءُ
A bow whose handle fills the hand or whose central part is thick and strong.
A feminine descriptive form derived from the central or thick part called the كَبِد.
- Lane · entry 27787
كَبْدَاءُ
A hand-turned mill.
A tropical naming based on the difficulty or trouble involved in turning it.
- Lane · entry 27787
أَكْبَد
A certain bird.
A lexicalized nominal use distinct from the adjective meaning large or thick in the middle.
- Lane · entry 27787
مَكْبُود
Hit or hurt in the liver, or suffering a complaint or pain of the liver.
A passive participial form describing the person affected in the liver.
- Lane · entry 27788
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form occurs once, at 90:4. The lexical evidence records several alternative interpretations of the same construction, while the supplied contextual gloss reflects only the hardship interpretation.