Quranic root
نسي
n · s · y
The root centers on something leaving active awareness: failing to retain or recall it, and, by extension, leaving or disregarding it.
The lexical evidence distinguishes forgetfulness after something was present to the mind from deliberate abandonment or neglect. Quranic usage extends the latter to culpable human disregard and to divine retributive abandonment. The separately hamzated family associated with postponement is not treated as a direct meaning of this root.
- Maqāyīs · row 4627
- Mufradāt · row 1440
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 45
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَسِيَ
nasiya
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 35 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 forget; to lose the active remembrance of something previously known, entrusted, or present to the mind.
This covers ordinary lapses of recollection and failure to retain what one has been reminded of. The Quranic form can also occur where the forgetting has an intentional or culpable basis, treated separately below.
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:115word 7
“but he forgot”
To deliberately neglect, disregard, or leave something unheeded.
In culpable human conduct, forgetting may mean intentionally abandoning what was entrusted or commanded. When attributed to God, the expression denotes leaving people in disregard or abandonment as requital, not a loss of divine knowledge.
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:67word 15
“so He has forgotten them”
أَنْسَىٰ
ʾansāā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 7 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 to forget; to make something forgotten by removing its remembrance from the mind.
The causative construction may take a person who is made to forget or a matter whose remembrance is caused to disappear, including the erasure of a matter from people's hearts by divine power.
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:106word 6
“[We] cause it to be forgotten”
Quran 18:63word 11
“made me forget it”
مَنْسِيّ
mansiyy
- Part of speech
- Passive 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.
Forgotten; left unremembered or disregarded.
In the expression نَسْيًا مَنْسِيًّا, the passive participle reinforces the status of something treated as forgotten and of little account.
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:23word 13
“forgotten”
نَسِيّ
nasiyy
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- 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.
Forgetful; characterized by forgetting.
An adjectival use describing one marked by forgetfulness, distinct from the passive-participial sense of مَنْسِيّ, “forgotten.”
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:64word 18
“forgetful”
نَسْي
nasy
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A thing of little account; something left behind or liable to be forgotten.
The noun can denote what receives little consideration, even when it has not literally been forgotten. In the Quranic expression نَسْيًا مَنْسِيًّا, it describes something treated as negligible and forgotten.
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:23word 12
“(in) oblivion”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:44وَتَنسَوْنَand you forget
- 2:106نُنسِهَا[We] cause it to be forgotten
- 2:237تَنسَوُا۟forget
- 2:286نَّسِينَآwe forget
- 5:13وَنَسُوا۟and forgot
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 2 Classical meanings
نِساء، نِسوان، نِسوة
Plural terms for women, serving as plurals of امرأة by forms different from the singular.
These are lexically distinct plural terms, not forms of the Quranic verb meaning “to forget.”
- Mufradāt · row 1440
النَّسا
A bodily vein or cord known as al-nasā, traditionally located in the thigh.
Classical anatomical usage also reports dual and plural variants of the term.
- Maqāyīs · row 4627
- Mufradāt · row 1440
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic Form I expressions attributed to God use “forgetting” figuratively for leaving or disregarding people in requital, rather than implying loss of knowledge.
The supplied Maqayis discussion distinguishes the unhamzated root نسي from hamzated forms such as نَسَأ associated with postponement; those meanings are not assigned here.