Quranic root
نبت
n · b · t
A semantic orientation toward growth, sprouting, and emergence, especially in what is planted or produced from the earth, with extensions to other forms of development.
The lexical field extends from vegetation and causing growth to cultivation, human and generational development, flourishing, origin, and firm rootedness. These extensions are metaphorical or conventional developments from the central idea of growth.
- Maqāyīs · row 4514
- Mufradāt · row 1405
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 26
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَبَتَ
nabata
- 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 grow, sprout, vegetate, or germinate.
In the Quranic occurrence, the plant grows while bearing or containing oil; the construction describes growth together with an inherent or accompanying property.
- Lane · entry 43013
- Mufradāt · row 1405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:20word 6
“(which) produces”
أَنْبَتَ
ʾanbata
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 16 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 plants or vegetation to grow; to produce plant growth.
A transitive causative use, commonly with crops, gardens, trees, vegetation, or other produce of the earth.
- Lane · entry 43015
- Mufradāt · row 1405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:60word 10
“And We caused to grow”
To cause a person to grow; to rear or bring someone up.
Used for human development and upbringing, including the Quranic descriptions of Mary and of humankind being caused to grow from the earth.
- Lane · entry 43015
- Mufradāt · row 1405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:37word 5
“and reared her”
Quran 71:17word 2
“has caused you to grow”
نَبَاتٌ
nabātun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 9 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.
Vegetation, plants, or plant growth produced from the earth.
The Quranic noun denotes plant life or vegetative produce broadly, including herbage and the growth of cultivated land.
- Lane · entry 43018
- Mufradāt · row 1405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:99word 9
“vegetation”
Quran 78:15word 4
“and vegetation”
Growth or rearing; the process of developing and being brought up.
In Quranic human contexts, the noun can function as the name of growth or as an expression of a person's good rearing and development.
- Lane · entry 43015
- Mufradāt · row 1405
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:37word 6
“a rearing”
Quran 71:17word 5
“(as) a growth”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:61تُنۢبِتُgrows
- 2:261أَنۢبَتَتْwhich grows
- 3:37وَأَنۢبَتَهَاand reared her
- 3:37نَبَاتًاa rearing
- 6:99نَبَاتَvegetation
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 27 Classical meanings
نَبَتَ
To become swollen or protuberant, said of a girl's breast.
A specialized description of breast development.
- Lane · entry 43013
نَبَتَتِ الأَرْضُ
Of land, to produce or give growth to plants or herbage.
The land is construed as the source or producer of the vegetation.
- Lane · entry 43013
نَبَّتَ
To feed, nourish, rear, or bring up a child.
A figurative Form II development from causing growth, with a child as the object.
- Lane · entry 43014
نَبَّتَ
To plant the term of one's life before one's eyes; to keep one's appointed term constantly in view.
Occurs in the cited idiomatic expression.
- Lane · entry 43014
نَبَّتَ
To plant a tree.
A transitive cultivation use.
- Lane · entry 43014
نَبَّتَ
To sow seed or grain.
A transitive agricultural use.
- Lane · entry 43014
أَنْبَتَ
Of a boy or girl, for the pubic hair to grow; to become hairy on reaching puberty.
The subject is a boy or girl, and the specifically mentioned hair is the hair of the pubes.
- Lane · entry 43015
اِسْتَنْبَتَ
To endeavor to make something grow, or to raise it by cultivation.
The means may be sowing seed, using date-stones, or planting.
- Lane · entry 43017
نَبْتٌ
In the expression أَهْلُ نَبْتٍ, people of the highest rank or nobility, or people whose property has flourished through their own exertions.
A conventional expression extending growth to social standing or flourishing prosperity.
- Lane · entry 43018
نِبْتَةٌ
The manner, form, state, or condition in which a thing grows or germinates.
Refers to the quality or manner of growth rather than to the growing thing itself.
- Lane · entry 43019
نَبَاتٌ
Sugar-candy.
A later, apparently post-classical designation, noted as probably Persian in origin.
- Lane · entry 43020
نَبِيتٌ
Vile, contemptible, or despicable.
Occurs in the phrase خَبِيتٌ نَبِيتٌ and may be said of a person or a thing; a variant reading associates it with poverty.
- Lane · entry 43021
نَبِيتَةٌ
A ridge raised along the edge of a rivulet or irrigation channel to retain water.
The plural denotes the ridges or side supports of such channels.
- Lane · entry 43022
نَابِتٌ
What is fresh or new in anything while it is just growing forth and still small.
An adjectival or substantival description of newly emerging things.
- Lane · entry 43023
نَابِتَةٌ
Young offspring or a new generation that grows up alongside an older group and increases its number.
The expression may also characterize such offspring as evil or undesirable.
- Lane · entry 43024
نَابِتَةٌ
The manner, condition, or state in which a group's camels, property, or children grow.
A conventional use describing the quality of the growth or development of a group's possessions or descendants.
- Lane · entry 43024
نَابِتَةٌ
An inexperienced young man; in the plural, inexperienced young men.
A figurative designation derived from being newly grown or newly emerged.
- Lane · entry 43024
نَوَابِتُ
A sect associated with introducing strange innovations in Islam.
A specialized historical use of the plural noun.
- Lane · entry 43024
مَنْبِتٌ
An origin or lineage from which a person springs; a race or ancestry.
Used figuratively for noble or excellent origin, as in being of an excellent manbit.
- Lane · entry 43026
مَنْبِتٌ
A place in which plants or herbs grow.
The plural is مَنَابِتُ.
- Lane · entry 43026
مِنْبَاتٌ
Land abounding in plants or herbage.
An adjectival description of fertile, plant-rich land.
- Lane · entry 43027
مَنْبُوتٌ
A plant caused to grow or germinate.
A passive participial description of a plant that has been made to grow.
- Lane · entry 43028
مُتَنَبِّتٌ
Firmly rooted or well established.
A figurative extension of being firmly planted; synonymous with being well rooted or established.
- Lane · entry 43029
تَنْبِيتٌ
The growth or germination of trees or shrubs, including young shoots of palm trees.
The noun can denote the vegetation that grows, especially newly emerging or slender growth.
- Lane · entry 43030
تَنْبِيتٌ
The prickles and branches cut from a palm tree to lighten it.
A specialized palm-cultivation term.
- Lane · entry 43030
تَنْبِيتٌ
Pieces of a camel's hump.
A specialized nominal use unrelated to the ordinary botanical sense.
- Lane · entry 43030
يَنْبُوتٌ
A name for certain species of trees, variously identified with poppy, carob, or thorny trees.
The lexical identification varies among authorities; the term denotes a botanical species or group rather than a general word for vegetation.
- Lane · entry 43032
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I Quran occurrence at 23:20 is discussed alongside a reported alternative reading; the public form and example follow the authoritative QAC identification.
For نَبَاتًا in the Quranic human-growth contexts, the evidence records a grammatical difference of interpretation as verbal noun versus circumstantial expression; both support the listed growth/rearing sense.