Quranic root
قدم
q · d · m
The root centers on going before or being foremost, with related branches involving precedence, forward movement, arrival, antiquity, and things located at the front.
From the basic idea of moving ahead or not turning back, the root develops meanings of temporal or positional precedence, advancement and leadership, prior action or provision, oldness, the foot as an instrument of advance, and front or foremost parts. The adze is recorded as an exceptional lexical branch.
- Maqāyīs · row 3737
- Mufradāt · row 1163
- 8
- Quran-attested forms
- 13
- Quran senses
- 48
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَدُمَ
qaduma
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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.
To go before or precede; to lead by being at the head.
Used in relation to a people or other group, and for proceeding ahead.
- Lane · entry 20858
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:98word 1
“He will precede”
Quran 25:23word 1
“And We will proceed”
قَدَّمَ
qaddama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 27 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 send, put, or bring forward; to do or lay up beforehand.
Used especially of deeds, acts, or other things sent ahead so that their consequences or record precede the speaker or agent.
- Lane · entry 20859
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:12word 7
“they have sent before”
To put someone or something before another; to give precedence or put oneself forward.
The precedence may be temporal, spatial, or relational, including the construction of putting oneself forward before another authority.
- Lane · entry 20859
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 49:1word 5
“put (yourselves) forward”
To present or offer something to someone.
Used with an offered object or provision, including an act of presenting an offering.
- Lane · entry 20859
Selected Quran examples
Quran 58:12word 7
“then offer”
To prepare or provide something beforehand.
Used for preparing something in advance for a later event or purpose.
- Lane · entry 20859
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:48word 10
“you advanced”
To warn or inform someone beforehand.
A conventional construction is قَدَّمَ إِلَيْهِ بِكَذَا, informing or warning someone before the time of need.
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 50:28word 6
“I sent forth”
تَقَدَّمَ
taqaddama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- 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.
To go before, precede, or advance.
The precedence may be in time, position, rank, or movement forward; the form can also describe what has already preceded.
- Lane · entry 20861
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 48:2word 5
“preceded”
Quran 74:37word 5
“proceed”
اِسْتَقْدَمَ
āistaqdama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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 go before or advance ahead.
Used in contrast with delay or lagging behind, especially in statements denying the ability to advance or precede an appointed time.
- Lane · entry 20864
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:34word 11
“seek to advance (it)”
Quran 10:49word 22
“they can precede (it)”
أَقْدَمُون
ʾaqdamūn
- Part of speech
- Substantivized adjective · plural form
- 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.
The earlier or ancient ones; predecessors or forefathers.
A Quranic plural form referring to those who came before.
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:76word 3
“and your forefathers”
مُسْتَقْدِمٌ
mustaqdimun
- 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.
One who goes before, precedes, or comes first.
The Quranic plural denotes those preceding or arriving before others.
- Lane · entry 20864
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:24word 3
“the preceding ones”
قَدَمٌ
qadamun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 8 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.
The human foot.
The ordinary anatomical noun, with plural أَقْدَامٌ.
- Lane · entry 20865
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:250word 11
“our feet”
A prior mark of merit or an established position of honor.
In the expression قَدَمُ صِدْقٍ, it denotes a preceding or previously established excellence with God.
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:2word 17
“(will be) a respectable position”
قَدِيمٌ
qadīmun
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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.
Old or ancient; belonging to an earlier time.
Used of something whose existence or age extends into the past; the Quranic uses do not by themselves assert existence without beginning.
- Lane · entry 20870
- Mufradāt · row 1163
Selected Quran examples
Quran 36:39word 7
“the old”
Quran 46:11word 19
“ancient”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:95قَدَّمَتْ(of what) sent ahead
- 2:110تُقَدِّمُوا۟you send forth
- 2:223وَقَدِّمُوا۟and send forth (good deeds)
- 2:250أَقْدَامَنَاour feet
- 3:147أَقْدَامَنَاour feet
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 32 Classical meanings
قَدِمَ
To come to or arrive at a place.
Used with a place or destination.
- Lane · entry 20858
قَدِمَ
To advance boldly upon an affair.
A construction with عَلَى expresses bold or energetic undertaking.
- Lane · entry 20858
قَدَّمَ
To bring someone or something near, or cause it to approach.
Used transitively with a destination or object of approach.
- Lane · entry 20859
قَدَّمَ
To bring or bring forward someone or something.
This is the general transitive bringing-forward use, distinct from the more specific senses of presenting or laying up beforehand.
- Lane · entry 20859
قَدَّمَ
To pay a price in advance.
Used with a payment made before it is due.
- Lane · entry 20859
قَدَّمَ
To prefer one course of action over another.
A construction with an action expresses choosing or favoring it.
- Lane · entry 20859
قَدَّمَ
To urge someone forward.
Used causatively of prompting a person or animal to advance.
- Lane · entry 20859
أَقْدَمَ
To be bold or audacious; to venture upon something courageously.
Often used with عَلَى for undertaking an affair or confronting an adversary.
- Lane · entry 20860
تَقَدَّمَ
To draw near or approach.
Used with a destination or object toward which one moves.
- Lane · entry 20861
تَقَدَّمَ
To become advanced or promoted in rank.
Refers to advancement in status rather than merely preceding in time or place.
- Lane · entry 20861
تَقَدَّمَ
For speech or a statement to proceed from someone beforehand.
Used of words or speech that have proceeded previously from a speaker.
- Lane · entry 20861
تَقَدَّمَ
To be forward in an affair before undertaking it.
Describes acting or positioning oneself ahead of the subsequent action.
- Lane · entry 20861
تَقَدَّمَ
To command, order, charge, or enjoin someone regarding an action.
The construction تَقَدَّمَ إِلَيْهِ فِي كَذَا or بِكَذَا conveys an injunction or command.
- Lane · entry 20861
تَقَادَمَ
To become old.
Describes something as becoming old or having aged.
- Lane · entry 20862
اِقْتَدَى بِهِ
To follow someone’s example or take someone as an exemplar.
The construction بِهِ marks the person whose conduct is imitated.
- Lane · entry 20863
قَدَمٌ
A footing, firm foundation, or established basis; by extension, a settled standing.
Used figuratively in expressions of firmness, excellence, or an established foundation.
- Lane · entry 20865
قَدَمٌ
A successor or one who takes another’s place.
Used in the expression عَلَى قَدَمِ فُلَانٍ.
- Lane · entry 20865
قِدَمٌ
Oldness or antiquity; existence or duration without a beginning.
The abstract noun may refer either to ordinary antiquity or, in theological usage, to beginningless existence.
- Lane · entry 20866
قُدُمٌ
The front or foremost position.
Used especially in the expression مِنْ قُدُمٍ, meaning in front.
- Lane · entry 20867
قَدُومٌ
An adze or hewing tool used by a carpenter.
An exceptional technical meaning not derived from the ordinary semantic branch of precedence.
- Lane · entry 20869
قَدِيمٌ
An established reputation or ancestral standing of a person or people.
A specialized figurative use referring to inherited renown or standing.
- Lane · entry 20870
القَدِيمُ
The Ancient without beginning, as a divine epithet.
A theological epithet in Classical usage; this sense is not asserted by the Quranic adjective occurrences in this packet.
- Lane · entry 20870
القُدَّامُ
The place or location that is before.
A noun of frontward location.
- Lane · entry 20871
قَوَادِمُ
The foremost feathers of a bird’s wing.
A specialized anatomical or ornithological plural.
- Lane · entry 20872
المُقْدَمِ
Boldness, daring, or courageous advance.
Used in the expression جَرِيءُ المُقْدَمِ for one bold in undertaking action.
- Lane · entry 20873
مِقْدَامٌ
A very bold, daring, or courageous person, especially against an enemy.
An intensive personal adjective.
- Lane · entry 20874
مَقَادِمُ
Fronts, foreparts, or the front of the forehead.
A plural noun for foremost bodily or spatial parts.
- Lane · entry 20874
مُقَدَّمٌ
A chief, head, director, conductor, or manager.
A substantivized passive-participial noun for one placed at the head of others.
- Lane · entry 20875
مُقَدَّمٌ
The antecedent or first proposition in an argument or hypothetical proposition.
A technical logical term for what is put first in a proposition or enthymeme.
- Lane · entry 20875
مُقَدَّمَةٌ
The van or vanguard of an army.
A collective military term for the part placed at the front.
- Lane · entry 20875
مُقَدِّمَةٌ
A premise, proposition, or basis on which an inquiry, proof, or syllogism rests.
A technical term in reasoning and demonstration, including an implicit premise.
- Lane · entry 20876
مُتَقَدِّمٌ
Preceding, anterior, or situated in advance of others.
Also used figuratively of someone forward or advanced in affairs.
- Lane · entry 20877
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form I QAC lemma is an inflected internal form; it is normalized here to قَدُمَ on the basis of the supplied precedence evidence, not to the separate arrival verb قَدِمَ.
أَقْدَمُون is retained as a Quran-attested plural/substantivized form because the packet does not supply a dedicated singular lexicographic entry for that form.
The Lane citation in the Form II discussion using historical citation notation is not converted into an additional modern Quran location.