Quranic root
نقض
n · q · ḍ
The root centers on undoing, untying, or breaking apart something previously made firm, compact, or coherent; it also has a related sound branch associated with cracking or rupture.
The physical sense extends from untying ropes, dismantling structures, and unraveling woven material to annulling covenants and contradicting statements. A related development describes sounds produced when joints, structures, or other things crack or come apart.
- Maqāyīs · row 4731
- Mufradāt · row 1478
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 9
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَقَضَ
naqaḍa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To undo, unravel, or untwist something made compact or interlaced.
In the Qur'an, used of spun yarn being untwisted; the physical action reverses a previously formed or tightened arrangement.
- Lane · entry 44402
- Mufradāt · row 1478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:92word 4
“untwists”
To break, annul, or repudiate a covenant, oath, or binding undertaking.
A figurative extension of undoing something made firm; used with covenants, God's covenant, and oaths.
- Lane · entry 44402
- Mufradāt · row 1478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:27word 2
“break”
Quran 16:91word 7
“break”
أَنقَضَ
ʾanqaḍa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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 press heavily upon or burden a back, causing it to creak under the load.
Used in the Qur'an in the construction أَنْقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ; the sense concerns oppressive weight and the resulting sound or strain, not simply breaking.
- Lane · entry 44405
- Mufradāt · row 1478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 94:3word 2
“weighed upon”
نَقْضٌ
naqḍun
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Breaking or annulling a covenant or binding undertaking.
A verbal noun used in the genitive construction نَقْضِهِم, referring to their breaking of a covenant or pledge.
- Lane · entry 44402
- Mufradāt · row 1478
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:155word 2
“their breaking”
Quran 5:13word 2
“their breaking”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:27يَنقُضُونَbreak
- 4:155نَقْضِهِمtheir breaking
- 5:13نَقْضِهِمtheir breaking
- 8:56يَنقُضُونَthey break
- 13:20يَنقُضُونَthey break
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 28 Classical meanings
نَقَضَ
To take apart a building or structure, or to undo and unravel rope, fiber, cloth, or other compact material.
The action reverses a previously firm or compacted state and need not mean demolishing a structure completely.
- Lane · entry 44402
نَقَضَ
To annul or undo a sale, an established affair, or the security of a fortified place.
A figurative extension of undoing something that had been confirmed, settled, or made secure.
- Lane · entry 44402
نَقَضَ وَتْرَهُ
To take or exact another person's blood-revenge.
An idiomatic expression literally associated with undoing a bowstring.
- Lane · entry 44402
نَقَضَ
To reverse what time or fortune had previously made firm or established.
A figurative description of changing circumstances that undo an earlier consolidation.
- Lane · entry 44402
نَقَضَ عَلَيْهِ
To undo, annul, or contradict another person's statement, especially by replying against it.
Used of a reply that invalidates or counters what another speaker or poet has said.
- Lane · entry 44402
نَقْضُ السَّقْفِ
The shaking or movement of a roof's wooden pieces or rafters.
A specialized expression for a roof whose components move, apparently producing a sound.
- Lane · entry 44402
مُنَاقَضَةٌ
Contradiction or rebuttal in speech; contending with another by countering what they have said.
May describe contradictory meanings within an utterance or an exchange in which each speaker rebuts the other.
- Lane · entry 44404
أَنقَضَ
To remove the earth's crust from over truffles or extract the truffles from the ground.
A transitive Form IV usage concerning the harvesting of truffles.
- Lane · entry 44405
أَنقَضَ
For the earth's crust to break up or come away from over a truffle.
Describes the crust separating as the truffle is about to emerge.
- Lane · entry 44405
انْقَضَتِ الأَرْضُ
For the earth to show or put forth its plants or herbage.
A specialized intransitive Form IV usage applied to the earth.
- Lane · entry 44405
أَنقَضَ
To produce, emit, or utter a sound, noise, voice, or cry, especially a slight cracking or clicking sound.
Used of animate or inanimate things, including joints, fingers, ribs, saddles, birds, and other animals; the classification of animate versus inanimate subjects is reported with variation.
- Lane · entry 44405
أَنقَضَ بِالدَّابَّةِ
To make a clicking, smacking, or similar sound to urge, call, chide, or drive an animal.
A construction with بِـ used with beasts of carriage, camels, horses, goats, or similar animals.
- Lane · entry 44405
أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَهُ
To make a back lean or emaciated through the pressure of a load.
A reported extension of the back-burden construction beyond the resulting creaking sound.
- Lane · entry 44405
تَنَقَّضَ
For the earth to crack or burst open from over a truffle.
A Form V usage synonymous with the earth's crust breaking apart as the truffle emerges.
- Lane · entry 44406
تَنَقَّضَ
For a house, chamber, or building to become cleft or cracked in several places.
The cracking may be accompanied by sounds.
- Lane · entry 44406
تَنَقَّضَتْ عِظَامُهُ
For a person's bones to make a cracking sound.
A figurative or sound-related Form V usage associated with bones cracking.
- Lane · entry 44406
تَنَاقَضَ
To be mutually contradictory or mutually repugnant.
Used of statements, meanings, sentences, or speakers when one part or position negates or undoes the other.
- Lane · entry 44407
تَنَاقَضَ
To mutually dissolve or break an agreement, sale, or covenant.
A transitive or collective usage in which the parties jointly undo the binding arrangement.
- Lane · entry 44407
انْتَقَضَ
To become undone, unraveled, dissolved, broken, or otherwise lose the firmness previously given to it.
The quasi-passive Form VIII is used of buildings, structures, ropes, woven materials, agreements, sales, and similar things.
- Lane · entry 44408
انْتَقَضَ
To become unsound, invalid, or unfortified after having been sound, healed, settled, or secure.
Used of a wound becoming recurrent, an affair deteriorating, a defensive position becoming unfortified, or a state of ritual purity becoming annulled.
- Lane · entry 44408
انْتَقَضَ عَلَيْهِ الشِّعْرُ
For poetry or a poetic statement to be undone, annulled, or contradicted by a reply.
A figurative Form VIII usage applied to a poetic counter-response.
- Lane · entry 44408
انْقَاضَّ
For a wall to crack without falling down.
A Form XI usage describing structural cracking that does not necessarily result in collapse.
- Lane · entry 44409
نِقْضٌ
Something undone, taken apart, unraveled, or pulled to pieces; especially material from tents, garments, or a hair-rope that has been unraveled and twisted again.
A noun for the result or material of undoing, including what has been dismantled or reworked.
- Lane · entry 44411
نِقْضٌ
An emaciated or jaded camel, horse, or other riding animal.
The condition is figuratively understood as though travel had unknit the animal's frame; a feminine form is also reported.
- Lane · entry 44411
نِقْضٌ
The place or crust of earth that breaks away from over a truffle.
A noun for the broken surface formed as truffles approach the ground's surface.
- Lane · entry 44411
نَقِيضٌ
A contradictor, contrary, or thing inconsistent with another; also a poetic counter-statement that undoes another poem.
Used of mutually incompatible propositions and of poetic compositions composed in rebuttal.
- Lane · entry 44413
نَقِيضٌ
A sound, noise, voice, or cry, including the sound of joints, fingers, ribs, saddles, animals, or other things.
This sound-related sense is separately reported in the lexical tradition and is subject to a disagreement about the preferred form and attribution.
- Lane · entry 44413
مُنْتَقِضٌ
Refraining or holding back.
A rare, isolated lexical usage reported as equivalent to مُتَرَيِّعٌ.
- Lane · entry 44418
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form IV Quranic usage أَنقَضَ ظَهْرَكَ concerns oppressive weight and the creaking or strain it causes; it should not be reduced to the ordinary Form I sense 'to break.'
A Lane passage under نِقْضٌ gives a honey-and-bees definition but explicitly identifies it as a mistranscription of نِفْضٌ, so it is excluded from the root's meanings.
The sound meaning reported under نَقِيضٌ is accompanied by an explicit lexical disagreement about the preferred form and attribution.
The meaning 'refraining or holding back' under مُنْتَقِضٌ is rare and isolated.