Quranic root
كرس
k · r · s
The root denotes the gathering and compacting of one thing upon another.
Its lexical development extends from compacted accumulations to foundations, collected paper, and strings of beads. The noun كُرْسِيّ denotes a seat or support and develops figurative applications, while derived verbs describe placing, consolidation, and concealment.
- Maqāyīs · row 3966
- Mufradāt · row 1243
- Lane · entry 28134
- Lane · entry 28136
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كُرْسِيّ
kursiyy
- 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.
A seat, chair, throne, or footstool.
Used for an object made for sitting, including a royal seat. In one traditional interpretation of 2:255, it denotes God's footstool or place of the feet.
- Lane · entry 28136
- Mufradāt · row 1243
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:34word 6
“his throne”
The divine dominion, power, or encompassing knowledge signified by the Kursī.
This is the extended interpretation of the divine Kursī in 2:255, where traditional explanations include God's dominion, His power over the heavens and earth, or His knowledge. Another interpretation identifies it with a cosmic sphere.
- Lane · entry 28136
- Mufradāt · row 1243
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:255word 42
“His Seat”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 19 Classical meanings
كِرْسٌ
A compacted or caked mass of camel, sheep, or goat dung and urine; also compacted clay or mud, especially as hardened ground at a watering place.
Used of compacted material in houses, traces of human habitation, and the ground at a watering place.
- Lane · entry 28134
كِرْسُ بِنَاءٍ
The foundation or lowest part of a building.
A building term referring to its compacted base.
- Lane · entry 28134
كِرْسٌ
One series or string of beads in a necklace or similar ornament, joined to another series.
Used for the several connected bead-series of necklaces and comparable ornaments.
- Lane · entry 28134
كِرْسٌ
The original base or core of a thing; by extension, any gathered or aggregated whole.
A generalized Classical usage for something regarded as collected or constituting a basic mass.
- Mufradāt · row 1243
كَرَّسَ
To place one part upon another; to assemble or establish a building foundation.
Form II; used both of physical layering and of founding a building.
- Lane · entry 28130
أَكْرَسَ
Of a house, place, or beast of carriage: to have dung and urine compacted in or upon it.
Form IV; for a place, the compacted material is within it, and for a beast it may be upon its tail.
- Lane · entry 28131
تَكَرَّسَ
To become piled one part upon another, compacted, and coherent; of a building foundation, to become hard and strong; also, to collect firewood together.
Form V; the subject may be a material, a building foundation, or collected fuel.
- Lane · entry 28132
اِنْكَرَسَ
To enter into a thing and conceal oneself.
Form VII construction with فِي and an object entered into.
- Lane · entry 32803
أَهْلُ الكُرْسِيِّ؛ الكَرَاسِيُّ
People of learning or science; learned men, by an elliptical figurative use.
A figurative and elliptical social designation derived from the association of the seat with a king or learned person.
- Lane · entry 28136
كُرْسِيٌّ
A prop or support for a wall.
A building-support usage distinct from the ordinary seat sense.
- Lane · entry 28136
ذَاتُ الكُرْسِيِّ
The constellation Cassiopeia.
A conventional astronomical designation.
- Lane · entry 28136
كِرْيَاسٌ
A privy on the roof of a house or in an upper chamber, with a conduit leading downward.
The term is restricted to an upper privy; a lower one is not so called.
- Lane · entry 28137
كُرَّاسٌ؛ كُرَّاسَةٌ
A quire or parcel of paper, a portion of a book or volume, generally consisting of five sheets or ten leaves.
A unit or portion of a written book, named for its being gathered or compacted.
- Lane · entry 28139
كَرُّوسٌ
A large-headed person or thing, as though the parts of the head were densely joined together.
A descriptive derivative based on the notion of compact assembly.
- Mufradāt · row 1243
رَسْمٌ مُكْرِسٌ
Traces of human habitation containing a compacted mixture of camel, sheep, or goat dung and urine.
A conventional description of the compacted remains at an abandoned dwelling site.
- Lane · entry 28141
قِلَادَةٌ مُكَرَّسَةٌ؛ مُتَكَرِّسٌ
A necklace whose beads are strung on two threads joined by divisions of larger beads; also a string of beads arranged one above another.
A bead-ornament construction involving layered or joined strings.
- Lane · entry 28140
كُرْسِيُّ الخَاتَمِ
The bezel of a ring.
A specialized term for the setting or supporting rim of the ring.
- Lane · entry 32804
كِرْسَنَّةٌ
Bitter vetch.
A plant name.
- Lane · entry 32805
كِرْسِنِيٌّ
A kind of chickpea.
A plant or pulse name, also reported with a variant pronunciation or spelling.
- Lane · entry 32806
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The divine Kursī in 2:255 has several explicitly reported traditional interpretations, including a seat or footstool, dominion or power, knowledge, and a cosmic sphere; these are retained as interpretive alternatives within the Quranic entry rather than treated as unrelated ordinary nouns.