Quranic root
لحم
l · ḥ · m
The root centers on interpenetration and close joining, exemplified by flesh as interwoven bodily tissue.
From this image of intermingled flesh, usage extends to joining, knitting, woven structures, cohesive bonds, wounds becoming covered with flesh, and the battlefield as a place of intermingling. Other branches concern flesh as food, prey, or material for animals.
- Maqāyīs · row 4128
- Mufradāt · row 1295
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
لَحْمٌ
laḥmun
- Part of speech
- 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.
Flesh or meat: the fleshy bodily substance, especially as an edible part of humans or animals.
Used literally for flesh or meat, including flesh mentioned as food, bodily substance, or provision. The Quranic plural لُحُومُ is included under this citation form.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
Selected Quran examples
In the image of eating a dead brother’s flesh, the flesh represents backbiting, vilification, or injurious talk about an absent person.
A Quran-specific figurative construction in which eating flesh is used as an image for backbiting and defamation; it remains an extended use of the noun rather than a separate physical kind of flesh.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
Selected Quran examples
Quran 49:12word 22
“(the) flesh”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:173وَلَحْمَand flesh
- 2:259لَحْمًۭا ۚ(with) flesh
- 5:3وَلَحْمُand flesh
- 6:145لَحْمَ(the) flesh
- 16:14لَحْمًۭاmeat
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 26 Classical meanings
لَحِيمٌ
Fleshy or corpulent; having abundant flesh.
An adjective for a person or other being characterized by substantial flesh; related forms describe possession of flesh and fat.
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لَحِمٌ
Fond of meat or accustomed to eating meat; meat-eating.
Applied to a person or, by extension, to an animal such as a falcon or wolf that habitually eats flesh.
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بَيْتُ لَحْمٍ
A house or place in which meat is available.
An idiomatic expression describing a place characterized by having meat.
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أَلْحَمَ
To feed someone or an animal meat; to provide a bird with flesh.
A Form IV causative construction with the recipient or animal as object.
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مُلْحِمٌ
One supplied with meat or hunted prey; by extension, one associated with furnishing or being furnished with meat.
The classical description applies especially to prey allotted from a hunt and may also describe one supplied from another source; the form is related to the act of feeding with meat.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
ثَوْبٌ مُلْحَمٌ
A garment in which the warp and weft are interwoven.
A textile designation based on the interpenetration of its threads.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
لَحْمَةٌ
The woof: the threads woven across and into the warp of a cloth.
A textile term for the cross-threads or weft of woven fabric; the related vocalization لُحْمَةٌ is also attested.
- Lane · entry 20576
- Mufradāt · row 1295
لُحْمَةٌ
A bond of affiliation, kinship, or social connection.
Used figuratively in the expression comparing a legal or social bond to the bond of lineage.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
لَحَمَ / لَاحَمَ
To join, mend, or fit two things together.
Describes making things adhere or restoring their connection, by analogy with flesh joining bones.
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لِحَامٌ
Material used to join or mend a vessel.
A concrete noun for what effects a repair or union between parts of a container.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
لَحَمَ
To strip or remove meat from a bone.
A transitive construction with the meat as the object removed from the bone.
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أَلْحَمَ
To close a hole with a patch; to consolidate or close a wound.
Used of a garment, piece of cloth, skin, or hide, and of the consolidation of wounds.
- Lane · entry 20571
أَلْحَمَ
To kill someone, making him prey or meat for wild animals.
A figurative causative construction presenting the slain person as meat for beasts.
- Mufradāt · row 1295
أَلْحَمَ
To give someone the opportunity or power to revile, vilify, or censure another person.
A figurative Form IV construction in which another person’s honor or reputation is made available as an object of verbal attack.
- Lane · entry 20571
- Mufradāt · row 1295
تَلَاحَمَ
To become joined or knit together.
A Form VI intransitive or reciprocal construction describing things becoming connected.
- Lane · entry 20572
اِلْتَحَمَ
To coalesce, consolidate, close up, or become closely united.
A Form VIII construction emphasizing the resulting close union or consolidation.
- Lane · entry 20573
لَحْمٌ
Fleshy substance or pulp, including the substantial flesh of a fruit.
Attested in the expression describing dates as having flesh or substantial pulp.
- Lane · entry 20574
لُحْمَةُ البَازِي
The portion of quarry or meat given to a falcon after it hunts.
A specialized expression for a bird’s allotted share of its catch.
- Maqāyīs · row 4128
لَحِيمٌ
A slain person, conceived as having been made into meat for beasts.
A figurative designation derived from treating the dead as prey or food for wild animals.
- Maqāyīs · row 4128
- Mufradāt · row 1295
مَلْحَمَةٌ
A battle or bloody melee.
The term is associated with the intermingling of combatants and with the bodies of the slain lying like scattered flesh.
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- Mufradāt · row 1295
مَلَاحِمُ الفَرْجِ
The narrow or fleshy parts of the female pudendum.
A specialized anatomical plural expression; the singular is described as مَلْحَمَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 20579
المُلْتَحِمَةٌ
The tunica albuginea, or white outer membrane of the eye.
A specialized anatomical term in later usage.
- Lane · entry 20580
شَجَّةٌ مُتَلَاحِمَةٌ
A head wound that has become covered with flesh.
A specialized description of a wound whose damaged area has acquired or been covered by flesh.
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مُلْحِمٌ
Of a crop, having wheat formed in it.
A rare agricultural usage describing the formation of wheat within the crop.
- Maqāyīs · row 4128
حَبْلٌ مُلَاحَمٌ
A tightly twisted rope.
A descriptive usage based on the close interlocking of the rope’s strands.
- Maqāyīs · row 4128
لَحَّامٌ
A butcher.
A professional designation.
- Lane · entry 20578
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The classical description of مُلْحِمٌ permits both association with supplying meat and with being supplied with prey, depending on construction; it is therefore kept distinct from the clearly defined Form IV feeding action.