Quranic root
لفف
l · f · f
The root centers on one thing winding, folding, or becoming joined with another, yielding ideas of wrapping, entanglement, dense intermixture, and gathering.
The evidence develops from physical winding and enclosure to tangled or dense growth, people gathered from different groups, bodily compactness, and figurative complication.
- Maqāyīs · row 4191
- Lane · entry 20659
- Lane · entry 20661
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
اِلْتَفَّ
āiltaffa
- 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 become intertwined or closely joined, one part with another.
In the Quranic construction وَالْتَفَّتِ السَّاقُ بِالسَّاقِ, the ساق is described as becoming joined or entwined with the other ساق.
- Mufradāt · row 1313
Selected Quran examples
Quran 75:29word 1
“And is wound”
أَلْفَاف
ʾalfāf
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Interwoven and dense, as vegetation whose growth is closely intertwined.
Used in وَجَنَّاتٍ أَلْفَافًا of gardens whose trees intertwine through their abundance.
- Mufradāt · row 1313
Selected Quran examples
Quran 78:16word 2
“(of) thick foliage”
لَفِيف
lafīf
- 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.
A gathered and mixed multitude; people joined together from different groups.
In فَإِذَا جَاءَ وَعْدُ الْآخِرَةِ جِئْنَا بِكُمْ لَفِيفًا, it describes people brought together as a collective, with the lexical association of a gathering from disparate groups.
- Mufradāt · row 1313
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:104word 14
“(as) a mixed crowd”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 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 16 Classical meanings
لَفَّ
To fold, wrap, roll up, or enclose one thing in another.
Includes physical wrapping or enfolding; related usage describes wrapping the head in clothing or placing a bird’s head under its wing.
- Lane · entry 20659
- Mufradāt · row 1313
لَفَّ
To involve or entangle an enemy in difficulty.
A warfare expression associated with subduing an enemy and inflicting many wounds.
- Lane · entry 20659
اِلْتَفَّ
To become tangled or confused, or to become luxuriant, abundant, and densely intermingled.
Applied to herbage, a collection of trees, or another thing that becomes closely gathered or dense.
- Lane · entry 20661
اِلْتَفَّ
To wrap or enwrap oneself in a garment.
A reflexive clothing construction, equivalent in sense to enveloping oneself in a garment.
- Lane · entry 20661
اِلْتَفَّ
Of a young man’s face, to become continuous or full with beard.
A specialized description of the beard becoming continuous across the face.
- Lane · entry 20661
اِلْتَفَّ
Of an affair, to become complicated.
Figurative use for a matter whose elements become entangled or difficult to disentangle.
- Lane · entry 20661
لَفٌّ وَنَشْرٌ
A rhetorical construction in which several items are followed by corresponding descriptions or predicates.
The correspondence may follow the original order (regular) or reverse and disorder it (inverted or confused).
- Lane · entry 20662
لَفَّاءُ
A thick thigh.
An anatomical descriptive term.
- Lane · entry 20664
لِفَافَةٌ
A wrapper, covering, or envelope.
Includes a covering for the leg or foot and a botanical envelope such as a pericarp or glume.
- Lane · entry 20666
لَفِيفَةٌ
A lock or tress of hair.
A discrete gathered lock of hair.
- Lane · entry 20667
مُلَفَّفَةُ السَّنَامِ
Describing a she-camel whose hump is heavily enveloped in fur.
A specialized descriptive expression for the covered or enveloped appearance of the hump.
- Lane · entry 20668
مُلْتَفُّ الخَلْقِ
A person with a compact, well-knit bodily frame.
Describes a tightly formed or compact physical constitution.
- Lane · entry 20669
أَلَفٌّ
A person who is inarticulate or stammers.
Figurative association with a tongue that seems twisted or entangled.
- Maqāyīs · row 4191
أَلَفٌّ
A person whose thighs draw close through corpulence; hence a heavy, slow person.
The bodily and behavioral descriptions are reported as related lexical uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 4191
- Mufradāt · row 1313
لَفَّ
To withhold or deny someone his due.
An idiomatic use with a person’s right or entitlement as the object.
- Maqāyīs · row 4191
تَلَافِيف
Interwoven patches or clumps of grass.
Used of dense, intertwined growth in the ground.
- Maqāyīs · row 4191
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The supplied contextual gloss “is wound” for 75:29 is not used to create a separate sense; the lexical evidence supports becoming intertwined or closely joined.
أَلْفَاف is retained as the attested adjectival citation form because the packet does not securely establish a singular public headword for this Quranic usage; it is kept distinct from لَفِيف.