Quranic root
كفر
k · f · r
The root centrally denotes covering, concealing, or placing something under a covering.
From physical covering and concealment, the lexical field develops into concealing or denying a favor or truth, disbelief, and related expressions for things that cover or enclose other things.
- Maqāyīs · row 4014
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- 11
- Quran-attested forms
- 17
- Quran senses
- 525
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كَفَرَ
kafara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 289 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.
To cover or conceal; in a Quran-focused construction, to conceal or cover over what should be recognized.
The covering sense is literal in the lexical field and is also used figuratively in the Quranic expression explained as concealing a bond or familiar relationship. The historical citation supplied for that expression is not converted into a modern verse location here.
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To disbelieve in, deny, or reject God, revelation, faith, or an established truth.
This is the principal Quranic religious use and may describe denial in the heart, denial in speech, or refusal to accept the truth. Voice, tense, and person vary grammatically without creating separate lexical senses.
- Lane · entry 28372
- Lane · entry 28379
- Lane · entry 28387
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:4word 19
“disbelieved”
To deny, conceal, or fail to acknowledge a favor or benefit; to be ungrateful.
Often used of failing to acknowledge divine favors or failing to render the gratitude and duty owed for them; the object may be expressed with بِ or directly.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:40word 34
“(is) ungrateful”
Quran 2:152word 6
“(be) ungrateful to Me”
To repudiate or disavow someone or something; to declare oneself free of an association or claim.
This Quran-attested construction is used with بِ and expresses disavowal or refusal of responsibility, association, or an alleged partner.
- Lane · entry 28372
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:22word 35
“deny”
كَفَّرَ
kaffara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 14 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.
To efface, remove, or cover over sins and wrongful acts.
The Quranic construction commonly takes the sins or evil acts as the object, expressing their removal or concealment so that they are treated as no longer standing against the person.
- Lane · entry 28373
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:271word 13
“And He will remove”
Quran 47:2word 14
“He will remove”
Quran 3:195word 27
“surely I (will) remove”
أَكْفَرَ
ʾakfara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
How ungrateful or disbelieving he is!
A Quranic exclamatory construction describing the human tendency toward ingratitude and denial; it is not the ordinary causative Form IV meaning found in broader Classical Arabic.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 80:17word 4
“ungrateful is he”
كَافِر
kāfir
- Part of speech
- Active participle / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 158 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.
One who disbelieves, denies, or refuses to acknowledge God, revelation, or the truth; a disbeliever.
The active participle is used substantivally for individuals or groups and adjectivally for those characterized by disbelief. The feminine and plural forms are included under this citation form.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 109:1word 3
“disbelievers”
Quran 2:41word 10
“disbeliever”
Quran 60:10word 41
“(with) disbelieving women”
A sower or tiller who covers seed with earth.
In the Quranic agricultural image, the term refers to the cultivator by reference to covering the seed, not to a religious status. The same form may elsewhere retain its religious sense.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 57:20word 17
“the tillers”
كَافُور
kāfūr
- 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.
Camphor or a camphor-like aromatic substance used as a fragrant mixture.
In the Quranic passage, the term is interpreted as an aromatic ingredient or a drink possessing the taste or fragrance of camphor.
- Lane · entry 28388
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 76:5word 8
“(of) Kafur”
A spring or fountain in Paradise, or the name of its mixture.
This is an alternative Quranic interpretation of كَافُورًا in the same passage: the word may be treated as the name of a paradisiacal spring or as a designation for the drink mixed from it.
- Lane · entry 28388
Selected Quran examples
Quran 76:5word 8
“(of) Kafur”
كَفُور
kafūr
- Part of speech
- Intensive adjective / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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.
Intensely or habitually ungrateful; by extension, persistently disbelieving or denying.
An intensive epithet whose context may emphasize ingratitude for benefits or religious disbelief; it is stronger than the ordinary active-participle designation.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:27word 9
“ungrateful”
Quran 76:24word 9
“disbeliever”
Quran 22:66word 10
“(is) surely ungrateful”
كَفَّار
kaffār
- Part of speech
- Intensive adjective / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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.
Exceedingly or habitually ungrateful or disbelieving.
An emphatic intensive form, generally stronger than كَفُور, though it can overlap with it in usage.
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Selected Quran examples
كَفَّارَة
kaffārah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
An expiation: an act or prescribed offering that effaces or covers a sin, crime, broken oath, or comparable violation.
The Quranic term denotes the expiatory act or payment, such as feeding, clothing, or another prescribed form of atonement, according to the violation concerned.
- Lane · entry 28386
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Selected Quran examples
كُفْر
kufr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 37 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.
Denial or concealment of a favor or benefit; ingratitude.
The noun may refer especially to ingratitude toward divine favors, and is contrasted with acknowledgment and thanks.
- Lane · entry 28379
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:7word 10
“ungratefulness”
Disbelief or denial of God, divine unity, prophethood, revelation, or religious truth.
The religious noun is conventionally opposed to faith and may encompass denial, refusal to confess, obstinate rejection, or concealed disbelief.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:108word 13
“[the] disbelief”
Quran 3:90word 8
“(in) disbelief”
كُفْرَان
kufrān
- 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.
Denial or failure to acknowledge a favor, effort, or benefit; ingratitude or rejection.
In the Quranic construction concerning a person's effort, it expresses that the effort will not be denied, disregarded, or left without acknowledgment.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:94word 8
“(will be) rejected”
كُفُور
kufūr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Disbelief or persistent denial; a state or expression of refusing the truth.
The noun is used for religious disbelief and, in Quranic rhetoric, may carry an emphatic sense of repeated or entrenched denial.
- Lane · entry 28379
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:89word 14
“disbelief”
Quran 25:50word 9
“disbelief”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:6كَفَرُوا۟disbelieve[d]
- 2:19بِٱلْكَـٰفِرِينَthe disbelievers
- 2:24لِلْكَـٰفِرِينَfor the disbelievers
- 2:26كَفَرُوا۟disbelieved
- 2:28تَكْفُرُونَ(can) you disbelieve
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 30 Classical meanings
كَفَرَ
To blaspheme.
A later or commonly used rendering within the broader branch of religious denial; it is kept separate as a reported Classical lexical use rather than made a separate Quranic form sense.
- Lane · entry 28372
كَفَّرَ
To expiate a violated oath or other obligation by performing the prescribed expiation.
Classical usage includes performing or giving what is called a كَفَّارَة; this oath-specific construction is not the Quranic sense of the supplied Form II verb occurrences.
- Lane · entry 28373
كَفَّرَ لَهُ
To humble oneself before someone by bowing, lowering the head, or making a gesture of obeisance.
Used of obeisance to a king, master, chief, or another honored person; the examples include non-Muslim subjects, slaves, and the people of the Scriptures.
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تَكْفِير
The crowning of a king with a crown.
A nominal use associated with the act of making obeisance to the crowned king.
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- Lane · entry 28390
كَافَرَ
To deny or disacknowledge another person's right, claim, or debt.
The construction may be transitive with the claimant or right and can imply prolonged denial or evasion of a debt.
- Lane · entry 28374
أَكْفَرَ
To call someone a disbeliever or impute disbelief to him.
The causative construction may mean charging, accusing, or declaring a person to be in disbelief; it is distinct from the Quranic exclamatory Form IV occurrence.
- Lane · entry 28375
أَكْفَرَ
To make or compel someone to become disobedient or disbelieving.
Used causatively of forcing a formerly obedient person into disobedience or placing him under a necessity to disobey.
- Lane · entry 28375
أَكْفَرَ
To keep or confine oneself to a village or remote settlement.
The village sense is connected with كَفْر meaning a village or settlement; the related Form VIII entry points back to this usage.
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- Lane · entry 28377
تَكَفَّرَ
To cover oneself completely with arms or with a garment.
The construction is used with بِ and describes being enveloped in armor or fully wrapped in a garment.
- Lane · entry 28376
كَفْر
The darkness or blackness of night.
A noun sense motivated by darkness concealing visible things.
- Lane · entry 28378
كَفْر
Earth or dust that conceals what lies beneath it.
A concrete noun sense based on the covering property of soil or dust.
- Lane · entry 28378
كَفْر
A grave or sepulchre.
A derived concrete sense; its plural is كُفُور.
- Lane · entry 28378
كَفْر
A village, small settlement, or remote rural place.
The term may denote a village generally, a settlement remote from major towns, or a small village associated with a larger town.
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كَفْر عَلَى كَفْر
One thing or part placed upon another.
An idiomatic construction describing superposition or layering.
- Lane · entry 28378
كُفْر
Tar or pitch used to coat ships.
A separate nominal homonym, explained as a covering substance applied to ships.
- Lane · entry 28379
كَافِر
A dark cloud that conceals what lies beneath it.
A concrete metaphorical extension of the covering sense.
- Lane · entry 28387
كَافِر
Night, especially intensely black night.
The term is used because darkness conceals visible things.
- Lane · entry 28387
كَافِر
Darkness that covers or conceals what is beneath it.
A nominal use closely related to the cloud and night senses but independently stated in the lexical entry.
- Lane · entry 28387
كَافِر
The sea.
A poetic concrete sense explained by the sea's concealing or covering the things within it.
- Lane · entry 28387
كَافِر
A great river or a great valley.
A separate geographical noun sense attested in poetic usage.
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كَافِر
A person staying or abiding in a place while hiding himself.
An agentive description of concealment or withdrawal.
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كَافِر
A person covered with or wearing arms, preparing for combat.
A classical interpretation of كُفَّارًا in a reported admonition; the same report also preserves the religious interpretation of becoming disbelievers.
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كَافِر
A coat of mail, or a person or garment covered by or covering a coat of mail.
The related expressions include the armor itself, one who has covered it with an outer garment, and the garment worn over it.
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كَافُور
The spathe or enclosing envelope of a palm-tree spadix; by extension, an enclosing calyx or covering of a fruit or plant.
The core botanical sense concerns the covering around the palm inflorescence. A related use is applied to the grapevine's unopened raceme, and one authority extends it to plant envelopes generally.
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كَافُور
A mixture of perfume made from the spathe of a palm-tree spadix.
A specialized Classical recipe or composition, distinct from camphor as a perfume and from the Quranic paradisiacal interpretation.
- Lane · entry 28388
كَافُور
A sweet-smelling plant with white flowers.
A separate botanical noun sense reported for a fragrant plant.
- Lane · entry 28388
أَكْفَر
More or most ungrateful or disbelieving.
An intensive comparative or superlative adjective, distinct from the Quranic Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 28389
مُكْفَّر
A bird covered with feathers.
A passive-participial description of being enveloped or covered by plumage.
- Lane · entry 28391
مُكْفَّر
A benefactor whose beneficence is met with ingratitude.
A figurative passive description of someone whose good works are not gratefully acknowledged.
- Lane · entry 28391
مَكْفُور
Ashes covered by dust blown over them by the wind.
A fixed descriptive expression for material that has been covered over by dust.
- Lane · entry 28393
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
كَافُور in 76:5 has more than one explicitly reported interpretation: camphor or a camphor-like mixture, and a spring or fountain in Paradise.
The Quranic context glosses vary between religious disbelief, denial, and ingratitude; the lexical evidence supports these as related but materially distinct branches.
Historical Lane Quran citations are preserved as lexical attestations without being converted into modern verse locations when the identification is not independently secure.