Quranic root
موت
m · w · t
The root centers on the loss or departure of force, vitality, or life from something; hence موت is the opposite of life.
From physical death, the lexical field extends to lifeless land, loss of sensation or understanding, sleep, stillness, exhaustion, mortality, and figurative states resembling death. Derived forms also express causing death, seeking or feigning death, and states associated with mortality.
- Maqāyīs · row 4480
- Mufradāt · row 1395
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 13
- Quran senses
- 165
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مَاتَ
māta
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 39 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 die; to undergo the departure of life
Used literally of a person or other living being. Perfect, imperfect, imperative, and passive-context translations reflect grammatical form rather than separate lexical meanings.
- Lane · entry 13103
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:144word 11
“he died”
to become deprived of sensation, as though dead
A Quran-attested figurative use in which the loss of bodily feeling or vitality is expressed through death language.
- Lane · entry 13103
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:23word 8
“I (had) died”
to become as though dead through overwhelming grief, sorrow, or fear
A figurative construction describing an emotion that disturbs or diminishes life; it should not be restricted to literal death.
- Lane · entry 13103
أَمَاتَ
ʾamāta
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 21 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 cause someone or something to die; to put to death
A transitive causative construction. The subject may be God or another agent in the Quranic wording; the core meaning is causing death, not merely undergoing it.
- Lane · entry 13106
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:28word 8
“He will cause you to die”
Quran 2:259word 17
“Then he was made to die”
مَمَات
mamāt
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
dying; death as an event or state
A nominal expression for the occasion or condition of dying, including possessive constructions such as “my dying” and “their death.”
- Mufradāt · row 1395
- Lane · entry 13121
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:162word 6
“and my dying”
Quran 17:75word 6
“(after) the death”
مَوْت
mawt
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 50 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.
death; lifelessness, the opposite of life
The ordinary noun for death or the absence of life, including the loss of vitality in living beings and the lifeless condition of things such as land.
- Lane · entry 13109
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:7word 23
“[the] death”
overwhelming anguish or distress represented as death
A Quran-attested figurative construction in which grief, pain, or distress comes upon a person from every direction without producing literal death.
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:17word 6
“the death”
مَوْتَة
mawtah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
one death; a single instance of dying
The unitary noun emphasizes one occurrence or episode of death, as in “our one death.”
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:59word 2
“our death”
Quran 44:56word 6
“the death”
مَيْتَة
maytah
- Part of speech
- Adjective / 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.
dead or lifeless, feminine form
Used adjectivally of a feminine noun, including earth deprived of vegetative life; it can also be substantivized according to context.
- Lane · entry 13110
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:33word 4
“dead”
carrion; an animal that has died without lawful slaughter
A substantivized legal and dietary term for an edible animal whose life departed without the prescribed slaughter; the Quranic usage concerns dead animals rather than death in the abstract.
- Lane · entry 13110
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:173word 4
“the dead animals”
مَيِّت
mayyit
- Part of speech
- Adjective / Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 43 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.
dead; dying or destined to die
مَيْت is reported as a contracted or variant form of مَيِّت, and the two are used for the dead as well as, in some analyses, one who is still alive but near death. The form may be substantivized and has plural forms such as أَمْوَات and مَوْتَى.
- Lane · entry 13118
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:30word 2
“will die”
Quran 3:169word 8
“(as) dead”
dead or deprived of vegetative life
Used of land or other natural surroundings whose growth and productivity have ceased. This includes the Quranic image of dead earth being restored to life.
- Lane · entry 13103
- Lane · entry 13110
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 35:9word 10
“dead”
deprived of understanding or intellectual responsiveness; spiritually dead
A Quran-attested figurative use for ignorance or failure of understanding, including the comparison of unresponsive people to the dead. It is not a restriction to any particular social or biological class.
- Lane · entry 13103
- Mufradāt · row 1395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:122word 3
“dead”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:19ٱلْمَوْتِ ۚ[the] death
- 2:28أَمْوَٰتًۭاdead
- 2:28يُمِيتُكُمْHe will cause you to die
- 2:56مَوْتِكُمْyour death
- 2:73ٱلْمَوْتَىٰthe dead
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 42 Classical meanings
مَيِّت
Regarded as dead when separated from a living body, including a detached part or substance.
The lexical discussion treats milk, hair, and wool as exceptional where practical use requires them to retain a different status.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
Of land: to become desolate, uncultivated, and without inhabitants.
A Classical use for land whose cultivation and habitation have ceased; it is distinct from the Quranic adjective for dead or barren land.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To become still, quiet, or motionless; of wind, to lose its force.
Used of a person, thing, wind, or a place described by the stillness of its wind.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To sleep, including to sleep heavily.
A figurative extension comparing sleep or heavy sleep with death.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To lose active force or practical function: of fire, heat or cold, water, a garment, or a road.
The attested applications include a fire dying away, heat or cold abating, water drying into the earth, a garment wearing out, and a road ceasing to be used.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To be figuratively consumed by envy.
An idiomatic expression in which “dying” describes an intense emotion rather than literal death.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To become poor or reduced to begging.
A figurative Classical use describing severe reduction in worldly condition.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To become base, abject, vile, or ignominious.
A figurative extension from loss of dignity or vitality.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To become extremely old, weak, or decrepit.
A figurative description of advanced age and loss of strength.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To become disobedient or rebellious.
An attributed Classical and traditional usage; the meaning is figurative and does not denote physical death.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَاتَ
To become lowly, humble, or submissive to the truth.
A reported figurative use for adopting humility or submission.
- Lane · entry 13103
مَوَّتَ
Of beasts of burden: to die in great numbers, or for deaths among them to become frequent.
The derived Form II construction is attested for widespread or repeated animal deaths.
- Lane · entry 13104
مَاْوَتَ
To vie with someone in patience, firmness, or steadfastness.
A Form III reciprocal construction concerning endurance or steadiness.
- Lane · entry 13105
أَمَاتَ
To cause someone or an animal to lose offspring through death.
Used of a person, woman, or female camel that has lost one or more offspring; this is a bereavement construction, not ordinary causation of death.
- Lane · entry 13106
أَمَاتَ
To render someone poor or reduce someone to poverty.
A figurative Form IV use.
- Lane · entry 13106
أَمَاتَ
To cause someone to sleep.
A figurative causative use, including the traditional contrast between sleep and waking.
- Lane · entry 13106
أَمَاتَ
To cook thoroughly until strong taste, odor, or boiling activity is removed.
Used of meat, onions, garlic, and wine; the result is thorough cooking or cessation of boiling rather than literal death.
- Lane · entry 13106
أَمَاتَ
To render the heart dead or unresponsive in a figurative expression.
A rhetorical construction explicitly understood as nonliteral death and associated with lack of increase or responsiveness.
- Lane · entry 13106
تَمَاوَتَ
To feign being dead, weak, or motionless while alive.
The Form VI construction can describe pretending death after being struck or adopting a weak, motionless appearance through excessive devotion or fasting.
- Lane · entry 13107
اِسْتَمَاتَ
To wait until the death of game or a beast of burden is ascertained.
A specialized construction used when one waits to make sure that hunted game or a riding animal has died.
- Lane · entry 13108
اِسْتَمَاتَ
To seek or court death; to expose oneself to death without concern.
Describes courage, willingness to die, or contentment with death.
- Lane · entry 13108
اِسْتَمَاتَ
To try every means and exert one's utmost in seeking something.
A figurative Form X extension from courting death to pursuing an objective with extreme effort.
- Lane · entry 13108
اِسْتَمَاتَ
To become fat after having been emaciated.
Attested of a person or camel as a specialized Classical usage.
- Lane · entry 13108
اِسْتَمَاتَ
To become relaxed, loose, or flabby, or to reach an extreme degree of softness or hardness.
Used of a thing such as skin or another material in descriptions of an extreme physical quality.
- Lane · entry 13108
مَوْت
A specified kind of death, including sudden death, death by sword slaughter, and death by drowning or suffocation.
These are conventional descriptive compounds formed with موت rather than separate basic meanings of the noun.
- Lane · entry 13109
بَنَاتُ المَوْت
Deadly arrows, literally “the daughters of death.”
An idiomatic metonym for arrows regarded as instruments of death.
- Lane · entry 13109
مُوتَة
A fainting or swooning state; by extension, a temporary madness, possession, or epileptic-like seizure.
The term covers a death-like stillness or lapse from which full reason may return.
- Lane · entry 13111
مِيتَة
A kind, mode, or manner of death.
Can be qualified as a good death or a pagan or erroneous kind of death; this is distinct from مَيْتَة, carrion.
- Lane · entry 13112
- Mufradāt · row 1395
مَوْتَانُ القَلْب
Dullness or lack of liveliness in the heart; stupidity or an unexcitable disposition.
A figurative compound describing cooled or inactive intelligence and feeling.
- Lane · entry 13113
مُوتَان
A widespread mortality or mortal disease among camels, sheep, other animals, or people.
Used for an outbreak or heavy incidence of death, including a pestilence-like mortality.
- Lane · entry 13114
مَوَتَان
Inanimate property or dead stock, such as lands, houses, utensils, and furniture, as opposed to living property.
The commercial contrast is with living beings such as slaves or beasts of burden.
- Lane · entry 13115
مَوَات
An inanimate thing; especially unowned, unused, uncultivated, or waterless land.
The land sense concerns property belonging to no person and not yet brought into cultivation or useful occupation.
- Lane · entry 13116
مَيِّت
An unbeliever, in a figurative opposition to حيّ for a Muslim.
A reported Classical figurative use and not a separate Quranic sense of the public form.
- Lane · entry 13118
مَائِت
Dying or absorbed in grief.
A figurative adjective describing someone overwhelmed by sorrow.
- Lane · entry 13120
مَوْتٌ مَائِتٌ
A severe, painful, or violent death.
The second word intensifies or corroborates the noun rather than introducing a new kind of death.
- Lane · entry 13120
مُمِيت
A woman or female camel bereaved by the death of offspring; a woman who has lost her husband by death.
A specialized nominal designation for bereavement.
- Lane · entry 13122
مُتَمَاوِت
One who feigns being dead or adopts the outward appearance of death-like weakness.
Especially applied to a hypocritical devotee who lowers the voice and moves little to appear exceptionally devout.
- Lane · entry 13123
مُسْتَمِيت
A courageous person who seeks or courts death, or devotes himself to it in battle.
The participle denotes deliberate exposure to death and indifference to being slain.
- Lane · entry 13124
مُسْتَمِيت
One wholly surrendered or devoted to an affair or objective.
The figurative construction can describe someone who imagines he will perish if he fails to attain the object.
- Lane · entry 13124
مُسْتَمِيت
One who feigns insanity or possession without actually being insane or possessed.
A reported figurative participial use.
- Lane · entry 13124
مُسْتَمِيت
One who feigns lowliness, quietness, or goodness for effect while not truly possessing those qualities.
Includes false submissiveness toward benefactors and a performed appearance of tranquil devotion.
- Lane · entry 13124
مُسْتَمِيت
The thin pellicle adhering to the white of an egg.
A technical nominal use unrelated to the participial meaning of seeking death.
- Lane · entry 13124
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
مَيْت and مَيِّت are displayed as one normalized public form because the lexical evidence explicitly treats them as equivalent or contracted variants, although some authorities distinguish a dead person from one near death.
The Quranic form senses preserve figurative uses explicitly explained in the lexical evidence; contextual English renderings alone have not been used to create meanings.
Lane's historical Quran citations are not converted into modern verse locations unless the corresponding QAC occurrence is independently supplied and secure.