Quranic root
موج
m · w · j
The root expresses agitation, disturbance, or turbulent movement in something.
This principle is applied literally to waves and surging water, and extended to confused movement among people and to disturbed affairs. The Quranic verb preserves the wave-like sense of turbulent motion.
- Maqāyīs · row 4482
- Mufradāt · row 1396
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 7
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَاجَ
māja
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 surge or move in turbulent commotion; to intermingle confusedly.
In the Quranic construction يَمُوجُ فِي بَعْضٍ, people move and intermingle turbulently with one another.
- Lane · entry 13129
- Mufradāt · row 1396
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:99word 4
“to surge”
مَوْجٌ
mawjun
- Part of speech
- Collective noun
- 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 wave, waves, billows, or surges; water rising above other water.
The collective noun may be rendered in the singular or plural according to context. It is used literally for water waves and metaphorically for successive or layered waves, including waves of darkness.
- Lane · entry 13131
- Mufradāt · row 1396
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:42word 5
“the waves”
Quran 24:40word 7
“a wave”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 10:22ٱلْمَوْجُthe waves
- 11:42مَوْجٍۢthe waves
- 11:43ٱلْمَوْجُthe waves
- 18:99يَمُوجُto surge
- 24:40مَوْجٌۭa wave
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 7 Classical meanings
مَاجَ
To be agitated, tumultuous, or confused; of the sea, waves, things, affairs, or people.
Classical figurative uses include an affair becoming confused, a person becoming perplexed, and people becoming discordant or disturbed.
- Lane · entry 13129
مَاجَ عَنِ الحَقِّ
To decline from the truth or from the true, right, or just course.
Figurative construction with عَنْ.
- Lane · entry 13129
مَاجَتِ الدَّاغِصَةُ
To move back and forth or from side to side between the skin and the bone or flesh, said of the kneecap or a ganglion.
An anatomical usage describing mobile movement beneath or between bodily tissues.
- Lane · entry 13129
مَوْجَةُ الشَّبَابِ
The prime of youth.
Figurative expression مَوْجَةُ الشَّبَابِ.
- Lane · entry 13131
مَوْجَى
A swift she-camel whose foregirth thongs have shifted because of the backward and forward motion of her gait.
A specialized description of a female camel, defined by the movement caused by its gait.
- Lane · entry 13132
مَوَّاجٌ، مَائِجٌ
Wave-tossed, agitated, or tumultuous; especially a sea in commotion, and also a man in agitation.
Adjectival derivatives describing turbulent motion; مَوَّاجٌ is an intensive description of a sea tumultuous with waves.
- Lane · entry 13133
- Lane · entry 13134
مَوْجٌ في فَرَسٌ غَوْجٌ مَوْجٌ
An imitative echo-word in the fixed expression فَرَسٌ غَوْجٌ مَوْجٌ.
A specialized idiomatic use in which مَوْجٌ is described as an imitative sequent rather than the ordinary wave noun.
- Lane · entry 13131
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic verb is attested as the imperfect يَمُوجُ, but the public headword is normalized to the standard perfect citation form مَاجَ. The noun مَوْجٌ is used both literally for water waves and metaphorically in the layered-wave imagery of 24:40.