Quranic root
نعس
n · ʿ · s
The root centers on drowsiness, slumber, and the onset of sleep.
From the basic state of drowsiness, the lexical family extends to associated weakness or dullness, faintness, and specialized animal and figurative applications.
- Maqāyīs · row 4679
- Lane · entry 44044
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نُعَاس
nuʿās
- Part of speech
- 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.
Light sleep, drowsiness, or slumber.
A noun for slight or incipient sleep; this is the ordinary lexical sense attested for both supplied Quran occurrences.
- Lane · entry 44044
- Mufradāt · row 1458
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:154word 8
“slumber”
Quran 8:11word 3
“with [the] slumber”
Calm and quietude.
An alternative Quran-focused interpretation of the noun in the two cited passages, understanding the slumber as an expression of settledness and tranquility rather than literal sleep.
- Mufradāt · row 1458
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:154word 8
“slumber”
Quran 8:11word 3
“with [the] slumber”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 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 10 Classical meanings
نَعَسَ
To drowse, become drowsy, or slumber.
Also describes the languor of the senses associated with the heaviness that precedes sleep.
- Lane · entry 44044
نَعَسَ
To become soft or weak.
Said specifically of a person's judgment or body.
- Lane · entry 44044
نَعَسَ
Of a market, to become stagnant or dull in trade.
A figurative or extended application to the condition of market activity.
- Lane · entry 44044
اِنْعَسَ
To beget sons characterized by heaviness, sluggishness, laziness, indolence, or torpor.
- Lane · entry 44045
تَنَاعَسَ
To feign being drowsy, slumbering, or asleep.
- Lane · entry 44046
تَنَاعَسَ
Of lightning, to become faint.
A figurative application to the weakening of lightning.
- Lane · entry 44046
نَعْسَة
A single fit of drowsiness or slumber, or a single nodding movement of the head while drowsing.
A count noun for one occurrence or movement of drowsiness.
- Lane · entry 44047
نَعُوس
A she-camel bountiful in yielding milk.
The term is associated with a camel that drowses, slumbers, or closes its eyelid while being milked.
- Lane · entry 44050
نَاعِس
Drowsy, heavy with sleep, slumbering, or dozing.
An active-participial adjective derived from نَعَسَ, with adjectival and epithetic use.
- Lane · entry 44052
نَاعِس
Slumbering, said figuratively of good fortune.
Occurs in the idiom describing a person's good fortune as dormant or inactive.
- Lane · entry 44052
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic noun has an ordinary literal reading of light sleep and an alternative interpretation in the supplied Quran-focused evidence as calm and quietude.