Quranic root
قطر
q · ṭ · r
The root contains several historically divergent lexical branches, including side or region, dripping and successive movement, resinous tar, and copper or molten metal.
Within the productive dripping branch, falling drop by drop extends to fluids, rain, sequential arrivals, and camel trains. Other branches—side or region, aloeswood, tar, and copper—are treated as distinct lexical developments rather than forced into one uniform root principle.
- Maqāyīs · row 3803
- Mufradāt · row 1192
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 5
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قُطْرٌ
quṭrun
- 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.
Side, part, quarter, tract, or region.
The Quranic plural أَقْطَار denotes the sides or regions of the heavens and the earth, or the sides of a place or structure.
- Lane · entry 8602
- Mufradāt · row 1192
Selected Quran examples
Quran 33:14word 5
“all its sides”
Quran 55:33word 9
“(the) regions”
قَطِرَانٌ
qaṭirānun
- 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.
Tar or liquid pitch, a resinous substance produced by heating wood or similar material.
In its Quranic occurrence, it is the material of the garments described in the surrounding punishment imagery.
- Lane · entry 8607
- Mufradāt · row 1192
Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:50word 3
“tar”
قِطْرٌ
qiṭrun
- 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.
Copper or brass in a molten or intensely heated state; molten metal poured while fluid.
The Quranic occurrences concern molten metal being poured or supplied. Lexical reports also record variant interpretations such as brass or molten iron, but the QAC occurrences are represented here by the supported copper/molten-metal sense.
- Lane · entry 8603
- Mufradāt · row 1192
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:96word 19
“molten copper”
Quran 34:12word 10
“(of) molten copper”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 14:50قَطِرَانٍۢtar
- 18:96قِطْرًۭاmolten copper
- 33:14أَقْطَارِهَاall its sides
- 34:12ٱلْقِطْرِ ۖ(of) molten copper
- 55:33أَقْطَارِ(the) regions
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 24 Classical meanings
قَطَرَ
To drip, drop, or flow in drops; of a person or animal, to discharge sweat, urine, or excrement in drops.
Used of water, tears, gum, and other fluids, including a passive or quasi-passive construction for something made to drip.
- Lane · entry 8593
- Lane · entry 8594
- Lane · entry 8596
- Mufradāt · row 1192
قَطَرَ فِي الأَرْضِ
To go away into the country or through the land; to hasten.
A distinct, figurative or tropical use of the Form I verb.
- Lane · entry 8593
قَطَرَ
To make water or another fluid drip, dribble, or flow drop by drop; to pour it forth.
The transitive construction may be used figuratively of bringing or sending someone upon another.
- Lane · entry 8593
قَطَرَ؛ قَطَّرَهُ؛ تَقَطَّرَ
To throw or fall forcefully onto one side; to prostrate someone on a side.
The evidence includes both transitive uses, such as being thrown down by a spear or horse, and an intransitive use of falling onto one's side.
- Lane · entry 8593
- Lane · entry 8594
- Lane · entry 8596
قَطَرَ الثَّوْبَ
To sew a garment or piece of cloth.
A tropical Form I construction.
- Lane · entry 8593
قَطَرَ الإِبِلَ؛ قَطَّرَهَا
To arrange camels close together in a file, string, or series.
The animals are disposed one behind another, conventionally with the halter of each animal joined to the one before it.
- Lane · entry 8593
- Lane · entry 8594
قَطَرَ البَعِيرَ
To smear a camel with tar.
The object is the camel receiving the tar coating.
- Lane · entry 8593
أَقْطَرَ
To be about to drop, drip, or fall in drops; to become ready or near to dropping.
An inchoative Form IV use describing the approach of the dripping event.
- Lane · entry 8595
قَطَّرَ؛ تَقَطَّرَ
To fumigate a garment or oneself with aloeswood.
The Form II and Form V uses refer to fumigation with قُطْر, the aloeswood material.
- Lane · entry 8594
- Lane · entry 8596
تَقَاطَرَ
To come in successive companies or to follow one another in a regular series.
Used of people arriving in groups and figuratively of letters or books following one another.
- Lane · entry 8597
- Mufradāt · row 1192
اِسْتَقْطَرَ
To seek or desire the dropping, dripping, or flowing of something; figuratively, to solicit bounty piecemeal.
The figurative construction presents a request for bounty as taking it drop by drop.
- Lane · entry 8598
قَطْرٌ
Drops or a drop of water or another fluid; rain or a shower of rain.
قَطْرٌ may be a collective term for what falls in drops, with قَطْرَةٌ as its unit noun.
- Lane · entry 8601
قُطْرٌ
In the plural, the outer or prominent parts of a horse, camel, or mountain.
This is a specialized extension of the side or region sense and is not required for the Quranic plural usage.
- Lane · entry 8602
فُطْرٌ
The diameter of a circle, a straight line extending from one side through the centre to the other.
Reported in the source as apparently post-classical, and the spelling differs from the surrounding قُطْرٌ entry.
- Lane · entry 8602
قُطْرٌ
Aloeswood used for fumigation.
This is the noun naming the fumigating material, distinct from the verbal act of fumigating with it.
- Lane · entry 8602
قَطِرَانٌ
Tar or liquid pitch used for smearing camels.
This records the classical animal-treatment application separately from the Quranic garment imagery.
- Lane · entry 8607
قُطَارٌ
A cloud or rain shower having large drops.
A specialized nominal description of a rain-bearing cloud or its rain.
- Lane · entry 8608
قِطَارٌ
A file, string, or series of camels arranged one behind another.
The noun can also be extended to another group or series proceeding in order.
- Lane · entry 8609
قَطُورٌ؛ مِقْطَارٌ
A cloud containing many drops or bringing much rain.
A descriptive nominal use for a rain-heavy cloud.
- Lane · entry 8610
قُطَارَةٌ
What drips from a jar or another object; a small quantity of water.
The word can denote either the dripping residue or the small amount remaining in a vessel.
- Lane · entry 8611
قَاطِرٌ
Gum that exudes or comes forth in drops from trees.
A nominal use derived from the dripping of tree gum.
- Lane · entry 8612
قَاطِرٌ
A camel whose urine continually dribbles.
A specialized description of the animal's persistent dripping.
- Lane · entry 8612
مَقْطُورٌ
Land upon which rain has fallen.
A passive participial use describing land affected by rain.
- Lane · entry 8615
مَقْطُورٌ؛ مُقَطْرَنٌ
A camel smeared with tar.
These passive forms describe the camel after receiving the tar treatment.
- Lane · entry 8615
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Maqayis entry explicitly describes the root's lexical branches as divergent rather than governed by one single regular semantic principle.
Lane records variant readings and historical Quran citation conventions for قِطْرٌ; the modern example locations used here are anchored to QAC and the independently supplied Quran-focused evidence.
The apparent diameter entry is marked in Lane as probably post-classical and has a spelling discrepancy within the source.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The packet's integrity metadata reports 55 Lane primary source units, but 53 explicit unit_id objects are enumerated in the supplied entries; the ledger covers every enumerated unit_id, and no unidentified unit IDs have been fabricated.
The Mufradat passage continues with قِنطارٌ and قنطرةٌ material that appears to concern the separate قنطر root. Because the packet supplies no independent qTr evidence assigning those meanings to this root, that continuation is not included as qTr lexical content.