Quranic root
مدد
m · d · d
The root centers on drawing or extending something lengthwise and on joining an added thing to another.
From physical stretching and lengthening, the meanings develop toward prolonging, increasing or replenishing, supplying aid or provisions, and the related nouns for extension, measure, ink, and material addition.
- Maqāyīs · row 4319
- Mufradāt · row 1352
- 9
- Quran-attested forms
- 14
- Quran senses
- 32
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَدَّ
madda
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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 extend, stretch, or spread outward.
In the Quran, used for spreading or extending the earth, shade, or another thing; the basic physical extension may be expressed transitively or through a resulting state.
- Lane · entry 12354
- Mufradāt · row 1352
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:3word 3
“spread”
To stretch one's sight toward something with desire or attention.
A sight-directed construction with the eye or gaze extended toward an object; this is distinct from merely spreading or lengthening a thing.
- Lane · entry 12354
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:131word 2
“extend”
To prolong or cause someone to continue in a condition, especially error or punishment.
Used of extending a person's continuation or exposure to a condition; Quranic examples concern error, delusion, or punishment rather than physical extension.
- Lane · entry 12354
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:15word 4
“and prolongs them”
To increase, replenish, or augment one thing by adding to it.
Used when a river, sea, or other quantity is fed or augmented by an additional supply; the result is increased abundance or flow.
- Lane · entry 12354
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 31:27word 9
“(to) add to it”
أَمَدَّ
ʾamadda
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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 provide, furnish, or increase someone’s supply of provisions or resources.
The added provision may be food, wealth, children, or other resources; the construction commonly takes the supplied person or group and the thing supplied with bi- or an equivalent complement.
- Lane · entry 12354
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 52:22word 1
“And We will provide them”
To reinforce, aid, or succour with additional support or forces.
Used especially of strengthening people with helpers, troops, or other means of support; supplying and military reinforcement are closely related but distinguishable applications.
- Lane · entry 12354
- Lane · entry 12357
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:125word 9
“will reinforce you”
مَدَد
madad
- 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.
An added supply or supplement.
The noun denotes something brought in addition to what is already present; in the Quran it occurs in the image of an additional supply or extension.
- Lane · entry 12365
- Mufradāt · row 1352
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:109word 18
“(as) a supplement”
مَدّ
madd
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Extension or prolongation.
In the Quran, the verbal noun describes an extension or prolonging, including the prolongation of punishment; the adverbial use can convey extensive continuation.
- Lane · entry 12354
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:75word 9
“an extension”
Quran 19:79word 9
“extensively”
مِدَاد
midād
- 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.
Ink or writing fluid.
The ordinary noun for the substance used in writing; its root association is with supplying or replenishing the writing instrument.
- Lane · entry 12370
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:109word 5
“ink”
مُدَّة
muddah
- 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 period or term of time.
In the Quran, it denotes the appointed or agreed term of a people or covenant; the form in the occurrence is inflected for its possessive construction.
- Lane · entry 12367
- Mufradāt · row 1352
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:4word 18
“their term”
مُمِدّ
mumidd
- Part of speech
- Active 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.
One who supplies, reinforces, or provides additional support.
An active participle of Form IV; in the Quran it describes the promised source or agent of reinforcement.
- Lane · entry 12357
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:9word 7
“going to reinforce you”
مَمْدُود
mamdūd
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Extended or spread out.
A passive participle describing something made long or extended, including the Quranic description of an extended shade.
- Lane · entry 12371
Selected Quran examples
Quran 56:30word 2
“extended”
Abundant or extensive, especially in wealth.
A figurative resultative use in which what is extended is understood as plentiful or ample; the Quranic context applies it to wealth.
- Lane · entry 12377
Selected Quran examples
Quran 74:12word 4
“extensive”
مُمَدَّد
mumaddad
- 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.
Stretched out or extended, with emphatic extension.
A Form II passive participle; the Quranic description concerns extended columns or pillars. The supplied Lane Quran discussion describes the associated pillars as tall, while the direct lexical construction denotes their being stretched or extended.
- Lane · entry 12379
- Lane · entry 12371
Selected Quran examples
Quran 104:9word 3
“extended”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:15وَيَمُدُّهُمْand prolongs them
- 3:124يُمِدَّكُمْreinforces you
- 3:125يُمْدِدْكُمْwill reinforce you
- 7:202يَمُدُّونَهُمْthey plunge them
- 8:9مُمِدُّكُمgoing to reinforce you
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 62 Classical meanings
مَدَّ
To lengthen a written letter or its sound value.
A technical orthographic or recitational use.
- Lane · entry 12354
مَدَّ
To prolong or strain the voice.
Used of chanting or of deliberately prolonged speech, including a threatening voice.
- Lane · entry 12354
مَدَّ
To lengthen a life or defer a term.
A figurative extension of duration, including granting someone respite or postponing a term; this broader classical use is not assigned to the Quranic sight or punishment senses.
- Lane · entry 12354
مَدَّ
To make much advance in traveling.
A figurative use of extension applied to progress through a journey.
- Lane · entry 12354
مَدَّ
To become full or crowded with people and goods.
Applied to a market or similar gathering; the source marks this as a figurative use.
- Lane · entry 12354
مَدَّ
To put oil or similar fuel into a lamp.
A conventional transitive use involving replenishing a lamp.
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مَدَّ
To put ink into an inkpot or supply a pen with ink.
Includes increasing the water or ink in an ink receptacle and supplying a reed pen.
- Lane · entry 12354
مَدَّ
To give or take a single dip of ink with a reed pen.
A writing-related use for one measure or dipping of ink.
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مَدَّ
To add manure, earth, dust, or sand to land to improve it.
An agricultural use of adding productive material to soil.
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مَدَّ
To give camels a moistened meal, fodder, or nourishing liquid.
The supplied food may be flour or coarsely ground grain moistened with water.
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مَادَّ
To pull, strain, or stretch against one another.
Form III denotes reciprocal drawing or pulling, including pulling a garment together.
- Lane · entry 12356
- Lane · entry 12359
مَادَّ
To prolong, delay, or put someone off.
A reciprocal or relational construction concerning the prolongation of time with another person.
- Lane · entry 12356
أَمَدَّ
To make a quantity, subsistence, water body, or other thing ample or full.
A broader classical Form IV use of causing increase or fullness, including rivers and seas, beyond the Quranic supply-of-resources construction.
- Lane · entry 12357
أَمَدَّ or تَمَدَّدَ
To walk with an affected, proud, self-conscious gait.
The gait includes an artificial inclination of the body and stretching of the arms.
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- Lane · entry 12358
أَمَدَّ
For a wound to produce thick purulent matter.
The noun for the matter is مُدَّة; the use describes its collecting or emerging from a wound.
- Lane · entry 12357
أَمَدَّ
For a plant to become succulent, with sap running through it.
Also used when rain makes a twig or wood soft or supple.
- Lane · entry 12357
تَمَدَّدَ
To become stretched or expanded, or to stretch oneself.
Used of leather, skins, and similar things, and of a person physically stretching himself.
- Lane · entry 12358
اِمْتَدَّ
To become extended, elongated, or stretched.
The Form VIII intransitive describes an object or shade extending itself or becoming long.
- Lane · entry 12360
اِمْتَدَّ
For a time, journey, or life to become prolonged.
A figurative extension of the Form VIII state to duration and progress.
- Lane · entry 12360
اِمْتَدَّ
For a disease to spread.
A figurative extension from physical expansion.
- Lane · entry 12360
اِمْتَدَّ
For the day or morning to advance, rise high, or shine forth.
Used when the sun is high and the day has progressed.
- Lane · entry 12360
اِمْتَدَّ
To strain oneself to give consent.
An attributed figurative use describing effort toward agreement.
- Lane · entry 12360
اِسْتَمَدَّ
To take ink from an inkpot with a reed pen.
The Form X use denotes drawing a dip of ink for writing.
- Lane · entry 12361
اِسْتَمَدَّ
To draw breath.
An intransitive use of obtaining or drawing a supply of breath.
- Lane · entry 12361
اِسْتَمَدَّ
To seek or request aid or succour.
The requested aid may be sought generally or from a commander in war.
- Lane · entry 12361
مَدْمَدَ
To flee.
A rare quadriliteral lexical use.
- Lane · entry 12362
مَدّ
Extent, reach, or the amount covered by an extension.
Includes the space occupied by the extent of vision and figurative expressions for a large extent or amount.
- Lane · entry 12363
مَدّ
The advanced or highest time of day.
Used adverbially of the day or morning when the sun is high.
- Lane · entry 12363
مَدّ
A flow of water or a torrent.
A substantivized verbal noun with a plural referring to flows.
- Lane · entry 12363
مُدّ
A traditional measure of grain or similar dry goods.
The Hijazi measure is described as a quarter of a ṣāʿ and as the amount held by two moderately sized hands; other regional standards are also reported.
- Lane · entry 12364
مَدَد
Balanced, moderate, or conformable to the just mean.
Applied to an affair or case in a rare lexical use.
- Lane · entry 12365
مَدَد
Aid or succour supplied to people in war, including an auxiliary force or provisions.
The term may denote an accession to an army or material supplied to strengthen it.
- Lane · entry 12365
مَدَد
A mystic aid imparted by a spiritual wali.
A specialized religious or mystical use reported in the lexical material.
- Lane · entry 12365
مَدَّة
A single act of drawing, pulling, straining, or stretching.
The noun denotes one occurrence of the action.
- Lane · entry 12366
مُدَّة
The utmost extent, limit, reach, or endpoint of time or place.
This broader use includes an extreme limit, whereas the Quranic form is specifically a period or term of time.
- Lane · entry 12367
مِدَّة
Thick purulent matter collecting in a wound.
Distinguished from the thinner discharge called ṣadīd.
- Lane · entry 12368
مَدَدِيّ
An auxiliary soldier.
A relational adjective derived from the military-support sense of مدد.
- Lane · entry 12369
مِدَاد
Anything added to another thing for its utility.
A lexical explanation of the original addition or replenishment sense; the ordinary Quranic noun is the writing-fluid sense.
- Lane · entry 12370
مِدَاد
A row of trees other than palms.
A specialized nominal use.
- Lane · entry 12370
مِدَاد
A mode, manner, fashion, or form.
Used in expressions describing things made according to one manner or pattern.
- Lane · entry 12370
مِدَاد
A particular game of the Arabs or of children.
A specialized conventional name.
- Lane · entry 12370
مِدَاد
A source or supply that increases the flow or abundance of water.
Used of a river or spout whose supply augments another flow.
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- Lane · entry 12373
مِدَاد
A large needle used at the sides of cloth when its manufacture begins.
Also used collectively for the threads forming the warp of a web.
- Lane · entry 12370
مِدَاد
The threads composing the warp of a woven web.
A plural or collective textile use.
- Lane · entry 12370
مَدِيد
Drawn, pulled, strained, stretched, or lengthened.
The basic adjective describes something made extended by pulling or drawing.
- Lane · entry 12371
مَدِيد
Tall or long in stature.
Used of a person, body, or stature; the Quranic pillar interpretation in the supplied material is kept with the Quranic derived form rather than treated as this non-Quranic headword alone.
- Lane · entry 12371
مَدِيد
Long-lasting or extended in duration.
Used of a long period of residence or continuance.
- Lane · entry 12371
مَدِيد
The name of a prosodic meter.
So called because of the extension of its constituent prosodic elements.
- Lane · entry 12371
مَدِيد
A drink or moist feed made from water and flour, grain, seeds, or similar material for camels.
The term may also denote fodder in general in this specialized use.
- Lane · entry 12371
مَادَّة
An accession or whatever is added to a thing.
Includes an added quantity of milk and other material that accumulates with what is already present.
- Lane · entry 12373
مَادَّة
The quantity of milk left in an udder as an addition to what has already collected.
A specialized agricultural or pastoral application of the accession sense.
- Lane · entry 12373
مَادَّة
Material support that aids Muslims and increases or strengthens their armies.
A figurative expression for people and wealth contributing to a military or communal cause.
- Lane · entry 12373
مَادَّة
The supply feeding a sea or great river.
A hydrological use for an accession or source of water.
- Lane · entry 12373
مَادَّة
Continuous increase or that by which a thing is extended.
The feminine ending intensifies the sense of ongoing addition.
- Lane · entry 12373
مَادَّة
Matter or substance capable of receiving form.
A conventional philosophical term for material or materials, with specialized technical distinctions among related terms.
- Lane · entry 12373
مَادَّة
The radical substance of a word, namely its root letters collectively.
A grammatical and lexicographical technical use.
- Lane · entry 12373
أَمَدُّ
More or most tall, high, or long.
A comparative or superlative adjective, including the tallest in stature and the utmost degree of a quality.
- Lane · entry 12374
أَمَدُّ
Higher or louder in voice.
A comparative or superlative use applied to vocal height or loudness.
- Lane · entry 12374
أُمْدُود
Custom or habit.
A rare nominal use.
- Lane · entry 12375
إِمِدَّان
Salt or very salt water.
May refer specifically to water of saline earth.
- Lane · entry 12376
إِمِدَّان
Water exuding from the earth.
A separate hydrological use of the same rare noun.
- Lane · entry 12376
مَمَدُّ حَبْل
The place on a rope at which it is drawn, strained, or stretched.
A specialized term for the point or section receiving the pulling force.
- Lane · entry 12378
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's printed Quran references use historical citation conventions; the artifact relies on the independently supplied QAC locations rather than converting Lane bracketed references.
The distribution of the meanings of مَدَّ and أَمَدَّ between prolonging, adding, and aiding is not absolute in the Classical evidence; the Quranic senses preserve the constructions explicitly supported here.