Quranic root
قلل
q · l · l
The root centers on paucity and smallness: being few or little in number, quantity, degree, or extent.
The numerical idea of fewness extends to smallness, short duration, comparative inferiority, limited worth, and figurative rarity or weakness. Derived forms also develop meanings of making something appear little, carrying a burden, becoming independent, and related specialized usages.
- Mufradāt · row 1201
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 9
- Quran senses
- 76
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَلَّ
qalla
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 become few, small, scanty, or deficient in quantity or amount.
Applies to a thing whose quantity, supply, yield, or supporting resources become limited.
- Lane · entry 21077
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:7word 14
“(is) little”
قَلَّلَ
qallala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- 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 make something or someone appear few or little; to cause it to be regarded as small in number or amount.
The Quranic construction concerns making an opposing group appear few in the observers' perception, rather than necessarily reducing its actual number.
- Lane · entry 21078
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:44word 8
“and He made you (appear) as few”
أَقَلَّ
ʾaqalla
- 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 lift or carry; to bear a load that is light relative to the bearer's capacity.
In the Quranic usage, the subject is a cloud bearing a heavy cloud-load or rain-bearing mass, described as light in relation to its strength.
- Lane · entry 21079
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:57word 11
“they have carried”
أَقَلُّ
ʾaqallu
- Part of speech
- Comparative adjective
- 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.
Less or fewer than another in amount, number, or possession.
One Quranic construction makes the comparison explicit in wealth and children; the form may also compare groups or amounts more generally.
- Lane · entry 21088
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:39word 16
“lesser”
Quran 72:24word 10
“and fewer”
قَلِيل
qalīl
- Part of speech
- Adjective / substantivized noun
- Quran occurrences
- 71 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.
Few or little in number, quantity, amount, or degree.
May qualify countable groups, uncountable quantities, actions, knowledge, possessions, and other things considered limited or small in amount.
- Lane · entry 21086
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:47word 12
“a little”
Quran 2:249word 52
“small”
A short time; briefly or for a little while.
A temporal use in which the omitted or understood noun is a period or duration.
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:52word 9
“a little (while)”
Fewness viewed figuratively as lowliness or weakness, or as rarity and consequent distinction.
The figurative evaluation depends on context: being few may imply weakness or low standing, while the rarity of the few may imply special distinction or excellence.
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:13word 16
“But few”
Scarcely or rarely in the construction قَلِيلًا مَا.
قَلِيلًا مَا may be understood as a near-negative such as “scarcely,” though it may also qualify the following action as being done to a small degree; the Quranic example involving belief admits both readings.
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:41word 5
“little”
Small or insignificant in worth or consequence.
In evaluative Quranic expressions, worldly price or enjoyment is called little by comparison with the greater value promised in the hereafter.
- Mufradāt · row 1201
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:41word 16
“small”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:41قَلِيلًۭاsmall
- 2:79قَلِيلًۭا ۖlittle
- 2:83قَلِيلًۭاa few
- 2:88فَقَلِيلًۭاso little
- 2:126قَلِيلًۭاa little
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 16 Classical meanings
قَلَّ
To be smaller than, or too small for, something.
A relational construction with عَنْ, expressing insufficiency in size or capacity for the matter at hand.
- Lane · entry 21077
قَلَّ
For one's wealth, good, or beneficence to become scanty; by extension, to become poor or niggardly.
Includes deficiency or lack of goodness, wealth, or generosity.
- Lane · entry 21077
أَقَلَّ
To disquiet or flurry someone through anger; to become agitated or tremulous from anger.
An idiomatic and figurative Form IV use.
- Lane · entry 21079
أَقَلَّ
To become poor or to have little property.
A Form IV intransitive use concerning reduced possessions.
- Lane · entry 21079
تَقَلَّلَ
To become diminished or reduced in quantity or size.
Intransitive or middle-reflexive use describing a quantity becoming small.
- Lane · entry 21080
تَقَلَّلَهُ
To see, judge, or deem something to be little in quantity.
A transitive perceptual use, not necessarily a claim that the object has objectively decreased.
- Lane · entry 21080
اِسْنَفَلَّ، اِسْتَقَلَّ
To be independent or alone, without anyone sharing or participating; to manage one's affairs by oneself.
Includes absolute independence and the construction اِسْتَقَلَّ بِنَفْسِهِ.
- Lane · entry 21081
اِسْتَقَلَّ
To rise or raise oneself while bearing a burden; of a bird, to rise in flight.
A movement construction describing elevation under a load or in flight.
- Lane · entry 21081
اُسْتُقِلَّ
To become affected by trembling or tremor through anger.
A passive or medio-passive expression of agitation caused by anger.
- Lane · entry 21081
اِسْتَقَلَّ
To take exclusive control of something or deal with it independently of others.
The construction اِسْتَقَلَّ بِالشَّيْءِ denotes acting exclusively with or appropriating a matter.
- Lane · entry 21081
قُلٌّ
Poverty.
A nominal usage distinct from the adjective قَلِيلٌ.
- Lane · entry 21082
قُلَّةٌ
The top or highest part of a mountain or other thing; specifically the top of the head or the hump.
A noun for a summit, uppermost part, or raised crown-like portion.
- Lane · entry 21084
قُلَّةٌ
A jar or large earthen vessel, especially one of a size that a person can lift.
A concrete nominal usage distinct from the meaning “summit” or “top.”
- Mufradāt · row 1201
قِلَّةٌ
Paucity, smallness, scantiness, insufficiency, or lack; sometimes absence.
May denote want of a due amount or want of care, as in قِلَّةُ مُبَالَاةٍ.
- Lane · entry 21085
قَلِيلٌ
Lacking or nearly destitute of goodness or wealth.
In قَلِيلُ الخَيْرِ, the phrase can describe someone deficient in good or property; an idiomatic application is also explained as not making use of oaths at all.
- Lane · entry 21086
مُسْتَقِلٌّ
Independent, self-contained, or devoted to a particular subject; a monograph or an independently standing meaning.
Used of a specialized writing, a monograph, or a meaning treated as independent.
- Lane · entry 21089
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
In قَلِيلًا مَا تُؤْمِنُونَ, the expression permits both a near-negative reading (“you scarcely believe”) and a degree reading (“you believe little”).
The anatomical meaning reported in lane-unit:qll:21084:g1:sub3 is left unassigned because the same passage says the form is more properly derived from قلت rather than قلل.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:qll:21084:g1:sub3 reports قُلَّتَانِ as a possible form for the hollows of the two collarbones, but explicitly prefers قَلْتَانِ from the separate root قلت; root assignment is therefore uncertain.