Quranic root
نكس
n · k · s
The root denotes turning or placing a thing upside down, with its former upper or forward position reversed.
From physical inversion, the lexicon develops senses of reversal into a former state, relapse, decline from strength into weakness or old age, lowered posture, defective orientation, and figurative baseness.
- Maqāyīs · row 4745
- Mufradāt · row 1485
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 3
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَكَسَ
nakasa
- 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 be turned upside down or reversed, with the former order or position inverted.
Used in the passive Quranic construction ثُمَّ نُكِسُوا عَلَى رُؤُوسِهِمْ, literally portraying a turning upon the head.
- Lane · entry 44522
- Mufradāt · row 1485
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:65word 2
“they were turned”
To be turned back to a former position or state, especially to revert from recognized truth to disputation or disbelief.
A Quranic construction uses the image of being turned back after having reached a sound course or recognized the evidence.
- Lane · entry 44522
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:65word 2
“they were turned”
نَكَّسَ
nakkasa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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 reverse a person's constitution through aging, bringing strength and youthfulness into weakness and extreme old age.
The Quranic use describes the causative reversal produced by prolonged life; it is the Form II counterpart of being reduced from an earlier state.
- Lane · entry 44522
- Mufradāt · row 1485
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:68word 3
“We reverse him”
نَاكِسٌ
nākisun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
Lowering or hanging the head, with the head bowed toward the ground.
The Quranic occurrence presents the participle in a plural human context of abasement or humiliation.
- Lane · entry 44528
Selected Quran examples
Quran 32:12word 5
“(will) hang”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 3 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 16 Classical meanings
نَكَّسَ
To turn or put something upside down, reverse it, or change its state, sometimes with an intensive force.
This is the broader Form II lexical use apart from the specifically Quranic aging construction.
- Lane · entry 44522
- Lane · entry 44523
نُكِسَ / نَكَسَ
To relapse into an illness after convalescence or incomplete recovery; of a wound, to break open or become active again; causatively, to make a disease return.
The subject may be the person or wound that relapses, or food and another cause that brings the illness back.
- Lane · entry 44522
- Lane · entry 44530
نَكْسٌ / نُكْسٌ
In an imprecation, to fall upon the face and not rise before suffering a second fall.
Occurs in the formula تَعْسًا لَهُ وَنُكْسًا, with نَكْسًا also reported as a dialectal or formally harmonized variant.
- Lane · entry 44522
نَكَسَ
To apply dye to the head repeatedly or several times.
A repeated-action use applied to the process of putting dye on the head.
- Lane · entry 44522
نَكَسَ / نُكِسَ
To become weak or impotent, or to fall short of one's fellows and be unable to attain them.
A Classical usage describing reduced capacity or failure to reach the level of one's peers.
- Lane · entry 44522
نَكَسَ رَأْسَهُ
To bend, lower, stoop, or hang the head toward the ground.
The construction may describe simple inclination or lowering caused by abasement; the Form VIII expression انْتَكَسَ is also equated with this use.
- Lane · entry 44522
- Lane · entry 44525
انْتَكَسَ
To become overturned, inverted, or reversed; literally, to fall upon one's head.
A quasi-passive or intransitive Form VIII development of the turning-over idea.
- Lane · entry 44525
تَعِسَ وَانْتَكَسَ
To be disappointed in attaining one's desire and suffer loss.
A figurative imprecation associated with being overthrown in one's affair.
- Lane · entry 44525
نِكْسٌ
An arrow whose upper or notched part has broken, leaving it turned bottom-for-top; also an arrowhead or blade defective in this way.
The defining feature is the reversal of the arrow's intended upper and lower orientation.
- Lane · entry 44526
نِكْسٌ
A bow whose foot is made from the head of the branch, a defective construction.
A technical description of a bow with its parts arranged in the faulty reversed manner.
- Lane · entry 44526
نِكْسٌ / وَلَدٌ مَنْكُوسٌ
A child born feet first, with the feet emerging before the head.
A rare obstetric expression; the evidence itself records qualification concerning its established authority.
- Lane · entry 44526
- Lane · entry 44530
نِكْسٌ
A low, base, mean, or sordid person; by extension, one weak or falling short in courage, generosity, or attainment.
A figurative application derived from the defective or inferior condition associated with نِكْسٌ.
- Lane · entry 44526
نُكَسٌ
Very old men tottering because of extreme age.
A plural lexical use associated with advanced age and physical unsteadiness.
- Lane · entry 44527
مُنَكِّسٌ
A horse that does not raise its head or neck while running because of weakness, or that fails to keep pace with the other horses.
A specialized equine description of weakness, impotence, or failure to reach the other runners.
- Lane · entry 44529
طَوَافٌ مَنْكُوسٌ
A circumambulation of the Kaaba performed contrary to the prescribed custom, saluting the Black Stone and then proceeding toward the left.
A specialized ritual expression describing an inverted or non-prescribed order of circumambulation.
- Lane · entry 44530
مَنْكُوسٌ
Recited or read backwards, beginning with the last part and proceeding toward the first, or from the end of a chapter toward its beginning.
Applied to Quran recitation performed in an inverted order; the cited discussion distinguishes reported variants and notes limited instructional allowances.
- Lane · entry 44530
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The nominal headword is normalized from the supplied plural Quran form نَاكِسُوا۟ to the singular active-participle citation نَاكِسٌ.
The feet-first childbirth sense is rare and explicitly reported with an authority qualification, but it is retained as an attested Classical usage.