Quranic root
كتب
k · t · b
The root denotes joining or bringing one thing together with another, especially by writing, binding, or assembling.
From the idea of joining, it develops into writing as the joining of letters, then into a written document, an established prescription or decree, a record, and a formal contract.
- Maqāyīs · row 3926
- Mufradāt · row 1233
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 12
- Quran senses
- 319
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
كَتَبَ
kataba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 49 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 write, inscribe, or record.
Includes writing down a text, statement, or account; active, passive, and imperative forms occur in the Quran.
- Lane · entry 27857
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:79word 3
“write”
To prescribe, ordain, decree, or establish as fixed or due.
Used for divine laws and obligations, appointed outcomes, allotted matters, and what is firmly established, including something established in the heart. The passive construction كُتِبَ عَلَى or كُتِبَ لِ commonly means “was prescribed” or “was decreed for.”
- Lane · entry 27857
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:183word 4
“Is prescribed”
To include or place someone among a group.
Especially used with مَعَ in the Quranic construction “include us among …,” rather than meaning physical writing.
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:53word 7
“then write us”
كَاتَبَ
kātaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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.
To enter into a written contract of emancipation with someone.
The Quranic construction concerns a contract between an enslaved person and the master, under which payment leads to freedom; the act is reciprocal between the parties.
- Lane · entry 27859
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:33word 17
“then give them (the) writing”
اِكْتَتَبَ
āiktataba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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.
To have a text written for oneself; to procure or fabricate a written account.
In the Quranic accusation, the subject is said to have had earlier tales written or transcribed for him, rather than necessarily writing them personally.
- Lane · entry 27863
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:5word 4
“which he has had written”
كَاتِب
kātib
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 writer, scribe, secretary, or recorder.
The active participle can denote a person engaged in writing or recording, including scribes and recorders.
- Lane · entry 27857
- Lane · entry 27873
Selected Quran examples
A learned or knowledgeable person.
An older lexical extension associates literacy with learning; this use is explicitly connected with Quranic expressions involving كَاتِبٌ.
- Lane · entry 27857
- Lane · entry 27873
كِتَاب
kitāb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 261 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 written text, document, book, record, register, or letter.
Denotes a physical or conceived written object, including a written communication and a record of information or deeds.
- Lane · entry 27868
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:29word 7
“a letter”
Quran 17:14word 2
“your record”
A revealed scripture or divinely given book.
Can refer to a revealed scripture such as the Torah, Gospel, or Quran, and to the authoritative contents conveyed by such a scripture.
- Lane · entry 27868
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:3word 3
“the Book”
A divine prescription, ordinance, judgment, decree, or appointed destiny.
Used for a ruling or determination established by God, including an obligatory ordinance, a prescribed term, and a decree governing events.
- Lane · entry 27868
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:145word 9
“(at a) decree”
A divinely grounded proof or authoritative warrant.
In Quranic argumentation, كتاب may denote an established warrant from God rather than merely the physical document containing it.
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:8word 12
“a Book”
مَكْتُوب
maktūb
- Part of speech
- Passive 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.
Written down or recorded.
A passive participle describing something whose mention or description has been set down in writing or otherwise recorded.
- Lane · entry 27857
- Mufradāt · row 1233
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:157word 8
“written”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:2ٱلْكِتَـٰبُ(is) the book
- 2:44ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ ۚthe Book
- 2:53ٱلْكِتَـٰبَthe Book
- 2:78ٱلْكِتَـٰبَthe book
- 2:79يَكْتُبُونَwrite
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 34 Classical meanings
كَتَبَ
To judge, pass sentence, or decree against someone that he should do something.
Used in the construction كَتَبَ عَلَيْهِ كَذَا, especially of a judgment or sentence.
- Lane · entry 27857
كَتَبَ
To draw together, bring together, or conjoin.
A general classical branch of the root’s joining sense.
- Lane · entry 27857
كَتَبَ
To close the vulva of a camel or mule with a ring or thong.
The device conjoins the edges to prevent mating.
- Lane · entry 27857
كَتَبَ
To sew or bind a waterskin or similar leather receptacle.
May mean sewing it with two thongs or binding its mouth so that its contents do not escape.
- Lane · entry 27857
كَتَبَ
To make a she-camel accept a young animal that is not her own.
The described practice involves a device at the nostrils to prevent the camel from detecting the young animal’s smell.
- Lane · entry 27857
كَتَبَ
To collect a military unit or troop.
A tropical usage related to assembling a كَتِيبَة.
- Lane · entry 27857
كَتَّبَ
To tie or bind the udder of a camel.
A derived Form II usage.
- Lane · entry 27858
كَتَّبَ
To prepare or arrange troops in ordered units.
A Form II military usage, especially arranging forces troop by troop.
- Lane · entry 27858
مُكَاتَبَةٌ
Correspondence or writing to one another.
The derived noun can denote reciprocal written communication between two people.
- Lane · entry 27859
أَكْتَبَ
To dictate something for another person to write.
A Form IV causative construction, as in dictating an ode or other text.
- Lane · entry 27860
أَكْتَبَ
To teach the art of writing.
A Form IV causative usage.
- Lane · entry 27860
تَكْتَّبَ
To gird oneself and draw one’s garments together.
A tropical Form V usage involving gathering clothing around the body.
- Lane · entry 27861
تَكْتَّبَ
To collect itself into a group.
Used of an army or other organized body assembling.
- Lane · entry 27861
اِكْتَتَبَ
To write or transcribe a book from another book.
A Form VIII nominal and verbal branch concerning copying or transcription.
- Lane · entry 27863
اِكْتَتَبَ
To register one’s name in an official list.
Used of enrollment among recipients of stipends or maintenance and of registration in a military roster.
- Lane · entry 27863
اِكْتَتَبَ
To request or have a book or similar text written for oneself.
Distinct from personally transcribing a text; the construction presents the subject as procuring its writing.
- Lane · entry 27863
اِكْتَتَبَ
To become obstructed bodily, with urine suppressed or the belly constipated.
A tropical medical usage of Form VIII.
- Lane · entry 27863
اِسْتَكْتَبَ
To ask someone to write something for oneself.
A Form X request construction.
- Lane · entry 27864
كُتْبَةٌ
A thong used for sewing a waterskin or leather receptacle.
A concrete noun for the sewing or binding thong.
- Lane · entry 27865
كُتْبَةٌ
A device used to close the vulva of a camel or mule.
A ring or similar thong used to prevent the female animal from being covered.
- Lane · entry 27865
كُتْبَةٌ
A seam, suture, or thong-joined stitch in a skin or hide.
Refers to the joined place where a thong brings two surfaces or edges together.
- Lane · entry 27865
كِتْبَةٌ
A mode or manner of writing.
A nominal usage distinct from the concrete sewing sense of كُتْبَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 27866
كُتُبِيٌّ
A bookseller.
A vulgar or nonstandard designation; the regular form would be كتابيّ.
- Lane · entry 27867
كِتَابٌ
A receptacle for ink.
A concrete noun homonymous with the ordinary noun for a book or written document.
- Lane · entry 27868
قِرْبَةٌ كَتِيبٌ
A skin sewn with two thongs or bound closed at its mouth.
An adjective describing a leather receptacle whose opening has been secured.
- Lane · entry 27869
كِتَابَةٌ
The art or practice of writing.
The verbal noun used as the name of the writing skill.
- Lane · entry 27870
كَتِيبَةٌ
An army, military force, corps, or troop.
May denote a collected portion of an army, including a troop of horse.
- Lane · entry 27871
كُتَّابٌ
A small round-headed arrow used by boys in learning to shoot.
A concrete technical noun, with variant lexical discussion in the source.
- Lane · entry 27872
مَكْتَبٌ
A school or place where writing is taught.
The usage is disputed in the source, which also records an interpretation referring to the boys of a school rather than the place.
- Lane · entry 27874
مُكْتِبٌ
A teacher of the art of writing.
An active occupational noun.
- Lane · entry 27876
مَكْتُوبَةٌ
A female mule whose vulva has been closed with a ring or thong.
A specialized passive-participial usage concerning prevention of mating.
- Lane · entry 27877
مُكَتَّبٌ
A bunch of grapes or similar cluster from which part has been eaten.
A specialized derived adjective or noun.
- Lane · entry 27878
مُكْتَوْتِبٌ
Swollen or full.
A specialized descriptive usage.
- Lane · entry 27880
كِتَابٌ
The ceremony of a marriage contract.
A legal or customary usage referring to performance of the contract, not to the certificate itself.
- Lane · entry 32770
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane’s historical Quran citation notation is used only as lexical evidence; modern verse locations in the examples come from the supplied QAC occurrences.
The Form III Quran occurrence is an inflected imperative; the public headword is normalized to the Classical Arabic perfect citation form كَاتَبَ.
The possessive form كتابي is accounted for under the core noun كتاب rather than displayed as a separate lexical headword.