Quranic root
موه
m · w · h
The root centers on water and water-like qualities: a liquid source that can be brought forth, enter, or be applied.
The historical form مَوَه is presented as the basis of ماء. Related developments extend the water image to coating with silver or gold, facial freshness, seepage, and other water-related actions.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
- Mufradāt · row 1339
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 63
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ماء
māʾ
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 63 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.
Water, the ordinary liquid substance.
Used in contexts including rain, flowing or stored water, purification, life, growth, and flooding; these are contextual applications of the same noun rather than separate lexical senses. Quranic surface forms vary with case, definiteness, and attached pronouns.
- Mufradāt · row 1339
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:30word 13
“[the] water”
Quran 25:48word 12
“water”
Quran 11:44word 8
“the water”
Quran 86:6word 3
“a water”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 63 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 13 Classical meanings
مَوَّهَ
To coat, silver, or gild an object by washing it over with silver or gold.
Applied especially to objects of brass, copper, or iron.
- Lane · entry 5894
مَوَّهَ
To varnish or embellish falsehood, information, or another thing with a false coloring so that it appears true; to falsify information.
A figurative or rhetorical use of coating and embellishment.
- Lane · entry 5894
مَوَّهَ
To throw into confusion or doubt; to conceal or disguise, and thereby to deceive, delude, beguile, circumvent, or outwit.
The construction covers both producing confusion and deliberately concealing or disguising something.
- Lane · entry 5894
أَمَاهَ
To bring forth or fetch water through digging or labor, or to reach water, including abundant water.
Used of a person or digger reaching water and of bringing forth the water of a well; it can also describe making a well's water abundant. أَمْهَى is reported as an equivalent for reaching water.
- Lane · entry 5895
مَاهَ
Of a well, to become water-bearing or full of water.
Reported in descriptions of a well that has water or becomes filled with it.
- Mufradāt · row 1339
مَاهَ
Of a ship, to take on water.
Used with a ship as the subject in the reported construction.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
أَمَاهَ
Of land, to show seepage or dampness as water appears in it.
Used of the appearance of a water seep or wetness in the ground.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
أَمَاهَ
Of a stallion, to discharge seminal fluid into a female's womb.
A specialized reproductive use, with the stallion as subject and the female's womb as the destination.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
ماء
Seminal fluid.
Attested in the specific expression ماء الفحل, ‘the stallion's water’; this is a specialized Classical use and is not generalized to all occurrences of ماء.
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مَاهُ القَلْبِ
Having much ‘water of the heart’; a person so described may be characterized as dull or lacking intelligence.
An idiomatic description in which dullness is an associated characterization rather than the literal meaning of water.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
- Mufradāt · row 1339
أَمَهَ / أَمْهَى
To water or wet a knife.
The two forms are reported for the same knife-related use.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
الماوية
A crystal stone; also a mirror.
The lexical item is reported for both a transparent crystal object and a reflecting mirror.
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
مَوْهَةُ الوَجْهِ
The shimmering freshness or youthful radiance in the face.
A figurative description of the visible freshness associated with the ‘water of youth.’
- Maqāyīs · row 4491
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The public headword ماء is a normalized citation form; the QAC occurrences include case endings, definiteness, and attached pronouns.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The supplied Mufradat excerpt ends with an incomplete continuation after «و:»; any following material could not be evaluated or assigned.