Quranic root
قطع
q · ṭ · ʿ
The root centers on severing, separating, or detaching something from something else.
From physical cutting and separation, the lexicon extends to divided groups, severed relationships, crossing a boundary, portions detached from a whole, interruption, cessation, and bringing something to an end.
- Maqāyīs · row 3804
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 14
- Quran senses
- 36
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَطَعَ
qaṭaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 cut, sever, or detach a physical thing from another.
Used of bodily members, trees, garments, entrails, and other tangible things; active and passive Quran forms express the cutting or its result.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:38word 3
“[then] cut off”
To cut off or destroy a part, group, or remaining trace.
Includes cutting off a faction and eliminating a people or their last remnant; the passive may describe the resulting destruction.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:45word 1
“So was cut off”
To sever a bond, kinship, connection, or what is meant to remain joined.
Used of abandoning or breaking relations, including kinship and the ties commanded to be maintained.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:25word 8
“and sever”
To cross or traverse a route or body of water.
In the construction of crossing a river or water, the verb describes passage from one side to the other rather than physical cutting.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:121word 8
“they cross”
To obstruct a route and prevent travelers from proceeding along it.
The expression of cutting the road may mean intercepting or robbing travelers, thereby causing people to stop using the route.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:29word 4
“and you cut off”
To cut off a means or support, with the construction in 22:15 understood as cutting the suspended rope or ending one's life by hanging.
The interpretation of the Quranic construction is reported with alternatives, including cutting the rope and strangulation; it is not a general synonym for every use of the verb.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:15word 16
“let him cut off”
قَطَّعَ
qaṭṭaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 cut up, sever, or divide something into pieces or portions.
The intensive/causative form presents the object as cut apart or partitioned, including bodily parts, garments, and other material wholes.
- Lane · entry 21011
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:31word 20
“and cut”
Quran 47:15word 43
“so it cuts into pieces”
To divide a group or break apart a connected relationship.
Used of separating a people into divisions and of severing kinship or other social ties.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:160word 1
“And We divided them”
Quran 47:22word 9
“and cut off”
تَقَطَّعَ
taqaṭṭaʿa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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 become severed, divided, or separated from one another.
Used of bonds, communities, factions, and other connected entities that split apart or lose their former union.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
- Lane · entry 21013
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:166word 10
“[and] will be cut off”
Quran 6:94word 23
“have been severed (bonds)”
Quran 21:93word 1
“But they cut off”
To become cut into pieces or fragmented.
May describe a thing or an inward state becoming broken apart; the Quranic usage includes the figurative cutting of hearts into pieces.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
- Lane · entry 21013
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:110word 11
“(are) cut into pieces”
مَقْطُوع
maqṭūʿ
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Cut off, ended, or brought to an end.
In the Quran, it describes the elimination of a people's last remnant and the negation of any ending or interruption from a provision.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:66word 8
“would be cut off”
Quran 56:33word 2
“limited”
قَاطِع
qāṭiʿ
- 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.
Determining or deciding an affair.
In the Quranic construction, the active participle describes one who will not decide an undertaking without consultation.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:32word 9
“the one to decide”
قِطْعَة
qiṭʿah
- 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.
A piece, section, or distinct portion of a whole; a separate tract or plot.
The supplied Quran form is plural and is used both for pieces and for distinct adjoining tracts of land.
- Lane · entry 21019
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:27word 18
“(with) pieces”
Quran 13:4word 3
“are tracks”
قِطْع
qiṭʿ
- 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.
A part or portion, especially a portion of the night.
The Quranic construction denotes passage or arrival during a portion of the night.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:81word 11
“in a part”
Quran 15:65word 3
“in a portion”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:27وَيَقْطَعُونَand [they] cut
- 2:166وَتَقَطَّعَتْ[and] will be cut off
- 3:127لِيَقْطَعَThat He may cut off
- 5:33تُقَطَّعَbe cut off
- 5:38فَٱقْطَعُوٓا۟[then] cut off
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 35 Classical meanings
تَقْطِيع
Griping or cutting pain in the bowels.
A bodily pain described as being in the abdomen.
- Lane · entry 21011
تَقْطِيع
Repeated interruption or breaking of the voice in singing.
A conventional description of interrupted vocal delivery.
- Lane · entry 21011
قَطَّعَ
To articulate or spell out a word.
A lexical use concerning deliberate separation of a word into articulated elements.
- Lane · entry 21011
قَاطَعَ
To separate oneself from another with the other's concurrence; to sever mutual friendship.
The reciprocal construction describes two parties disuniting or breaking the bond between them.
- Lane · entry 21012
تَقَطَّعَ
To become disintegrated through decay, become ragged, or separate into clots.
Used of a wound or ulcer becoming dissundered, a garment or water-skin becoming tattered, or milk decomposing and coagulating.
- Lane · entry 21013
تَقَاطَعَ
To become mutually disunited and sever the bond of friendship.
A reciprocal Form VI construction, contrasted with maintaining connection or contact.
- Lane · entry 21014
اِنْقَطَعَ
To be cut short or become unable to continue.
Used of a journey when means fail, and by extension of an argument, recitation, speech, or a person who can no longer proceed.
- Lane · entry 21015
اِنْقَطَعَ
To stop, cease, fail, become extinct, or come to an end.
Describes an activity, process, supply, or state that is interrupted or no longer continues.
- Lane · entry 21015
اِنْقَطَعَ عَنْهُ
To break off from, separate, or disunite oneself from someone.
The construction takes a person or associated party as the object of separation.
- Lane · entry 21015
اِنْقَطَعَ
To detach oneself from worldly things or other attachments.
A reflexive use describing withdrawal from worldly concerns.
- Lane · entry 21015
اِنْقَطَعَ إِلَى
To devote oneself exclusively to, or withdraw to, a person or place.
The prepositional construction is marked as figurative or assumed figurative in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 21015
اِقْتَطَعَ
To cut off and take a portion for oneself, especially from another's property.
The Form VIII construction emphasizes appropriating a separated portion.
- Lane · entry 21016
قُطْع
Pain in the belly, including colic or shortness of breath.
A distinct vocalized noun from قِطْع and قِطْعَة.
- Lane · entry 21017
- Maqāyīs · row 3804
قُطْع
A diminution or interruption of a well's water.
Used in the expression that a well has suffered a قُطْع, meaning that its water has decreased or ceased.
- Maqāyīs · row 3804
قِطْع
A designation applied to an arrow, especially a broad arrow point.
This is a distinct nominal use from قِطْع meaning a portion of night.
- Lane · entry 21018
قِطْعَة
A detached group or portion of animals or insects.
Used of a separate number of locusts, a herd, flock, or similar detached collection.
- Lane · entry 21019
قِطْعَة
A piece or section of poetry.
The plural قِطَع is used for sections of verse.
- Lane · entry 21019
قَطَعَة
A lexical noun cross-referenced to a term for a severed piece or stump.
The supplied evidence gives only cross-references and does not provide an independent definition beyond them.
- Lane · entry 21020
قَطِيع
A herd, flock, troop, drove, or other distinct collection.
Applied to collective groups of animals, birds, people, or similar beings.
- Lane · entry 21021
قَطِيع
A whip cut from the skin of a camel.
A concrete noun distinct from the collective meaning of قَطِيع.
- Lane · entry 21021
قَطِيعَة
A portion of land held in fee.
A landholding sense of the feminine noun.
- Lane · entry 21021
قُطِيعَة
Abandonment or forsaking, especially the severing of kinship.
The expression قَطِيعَةُ الرَّحِمِ denotes breaking or abandoning relations, the opposite of maintaining kinship ties.
- Lane · entry 21021
قَطَّاع
A person decisive and energetic in handling affairs.
An intensive descriptive form applied to a man who deals forcefully or decisively with matters.
- Lane · entry 21022
أَقْطَعُ اللِّسَان
Unable to reply.
A figurative expression for being left without an answer or unable to respond.
- Lane · entry 21023
تَقْطِيع
The cut, shape, conformation, proportion, or stature of a person or thing.
May describe facial lineaments, bodily build, beauty or proportion of stature, or the shape and fashion of an object.
- Lane · entry 21024
مَقْطَع
A place where a river, desert, or similar expanse is crossed.
The plural مَقَاطِع is used for such crossing places.
- Lane · entry 21025
مَقْطَع
The place of articulation or utterance of a letter.
A phonetic and grammatical use, comparable to a point of emission.
- Lane · entry 21025
مَقْطَعَة
A cause or means of cutting off or stopping something.
A noun for an instrument or circumstance that terminates or checks an activity.
- Lane · entry 21026
مُقَطَّعَة
Made by cutting out or assembling several pieces.
Used of garments formed from multiple cut pieces.
- Lane · entry 21027
مُقَطَّعَة
Clipped, debased, underweight, or heavily broken coins.
A specialized description of damaged or adulterated currency.
- Lane · entry 21027
مُقَطَّعَات
The separated letters of the alphabet.
A conventional designation for the alphabetic letters as distinct units.
- Lane · entry 21027
مُنْقَطِع
A grammatical exception whose excepted item is disunited in kind from the class mentioned before it.
A technical grammatical term contrasted with a connected exception.
- Lane · entry 21028
مَقَاطِيع
Heads or points of spears and arrows.
A plural technical noun for weapon points.
- Lane · entry 21029
مَقَاطِع الأودية
The lower or rearmost ends of valleys.
A specialized geographic expression for where valleys terminate.
- Maqāyīs · row 3804
أَقْطَعَ
To grant someone branches or authorize him to cut them.
Used of permitting a person to cut and take branches from a vine or similar plant.
- Mufradāt · row 1193
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I QAC group aggregates mostly active forms with one passive occurrence; the public headword is therefore normalized to the dictionary citation form قَطَعَ.
The QAC feminine passive participle مَقْطُوعَة and feminine active participle occurrence قَاطِعَة are presented under their normalized citation forms.
The construction in 22:15 has more than one reported interpretation, including cutting a rope and hanging or strangulation; the example should not be read as resolving that interpretive question.