Quranic root
قرع
q · r · ʿ
The root centers on striking or causing forceful impact.
From physical striking, the root extends to mutual combat, drawing lots, restraint, rebuke, rejection, and names for things that strike people, such as a calamity. Related developments also describe what is relied upon or selected as best.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
- Lane · entry 20898
- Lane · entry 20901
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
قَارِعَة
qāriʿah
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A striking or sudden calamity; the overwhelming catastrophe that falls upon people.
In the Quran, it is used indefinitely for a disaster and as a definite designation for the overwhelming eschatological calamity, including the event described in Sūrat al-Qāriʿah.
- Lane · entry 20908
- Mufradāt · row 1172
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 101:1word 1
“The Striking Calamity”
Quran 13:31word 37
“a disaster”
Quran 69:4word 4
“the Striking Calamity”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 13:31قَارِعَةٌa disaster
- 69:4بِٱلْقَارِعَةِthe Striking Calamity
- 101:1ٱلْقَارِعَةُThe Striking Calamity
- 101:2ٱلْقَارِعَةُ(is) the Striking Calamity
- 101:3ٱلْقَارِعَةُ(is) the Striking Calamity
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 23 Classical meanings
قَرَعَ
To strike or beat a thing.
The construction قَرَعَ فِي مِقْرَعِهِ is equated with striking in one's striking place. The idiom of striking a vessel against the forehead after emptying it is a contextual application of this physical sense.
- Lane · entry 20898
قَرَعَ
To impugn a person's character, blame, censure, or speak against him.
- Lane · entry 20898
قَرَعَ
To flip with the nail of the thumb against the nail of the forefinger.
- Lane · entry 20898
قَرَعَ أَنْفَهُ
To reject, repel, or turn back a suitor.
This idiomatic use is specifically described in the context of a marriage proposal.
- Lane · entry 20898
قَرَّعَهُ
To reproach or rebuke someone for a crime or similar fault.
The action is expressed by addressing the person with an accusation of what he has done.
- Lane · entry 20899
قَرَّعَ
To take, obtain, or win a bet, wager, or stake.
- Lane · entry 20899
قَارَعَ
To engage in mutual striking or combat.
Used of opponents striking or confronting one another.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
قَارَعَ
To cast lots against another person or take part in a drawing of lots.
This is the reciprocal lot-drawing use of the form.
- Lane · entry 20900
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أَقْرَعَ بَيْنَهُمْ
To arrange or order people to cast or draw lots among themselves.
The supplied lexical evidence also records a usage in which the subject casts or draws lots among them; the ordering or arranging interpretation is preferred.
- Lane · entry 20901
أَقْرَعَ الدَّابَّةَ
To check or rein an animal with its bridle.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
قَرِيعٌ
A stallion.
The designation is explained through the stallion's mounting of the female.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
قَرِعٌ
Receptive to advice or counsel.
The expression describes a person who accepts what an adviser says; the opposite is expressed by لَا يُقْرَعُ.
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أَقْرَعَ إِلَى الْحَقِّ
To return to the truth.
Used with إِلَى الْحَقِّ.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
قَرِيعٌ
A master or person relied upon in affairs.
The designation is extended to someone on whom people depend and whom they frequently consult; مَقْرُوعٌ is also reported for this sense.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
أَقْرَعَ
To give someone the choicest part of one's property.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
قُرْعَةُ الْمَالِ
The choicest or best part of one's property.
The term is associated with property relied upon in times of need.
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قَرِيعَةٌ
The best house in a quarter.
Its selection depends on the best shelter in cold weather and the best shade in hot weather.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
قَرَعٌ
Loss of the hair of the head; baldness.
- Maqāyīs · row 3759
حُبُّ القَرْعِ
A tapeworm, or worms in the belly.
The name is explained by the resemblance of the worm's joints to gourd seeds.
- Lane · entry 20903
قَرَعٌ
Bare pieces of ground amid herbage.
- Lane · entry 20904
قُوْعَةٌ
A lot used in sortilege; lots collectively; or sortilege itself.
The related expression ضَرَبَ القُرْعَةَ means to shuffle, cast, or draw lots, or to practise sortilege.
- Lane · entry 20905
قَارِعَةُ الطَّرِيقِ
The trodden or beaten part of a road.
In legal usage it may denote the road's sides or edges, contrasted with its main highway or جَادَّة.
- Lane · entry 20907
مِقْرَعَةٌ
A whip or implement used for beating, especially an implement for beating animals.
The term can refer broadly to an object used to beat, and specifically to a stick used with beasts, including mules and asses.
- Lane · entry 20911
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic calamity sense of قَارِعَة is distinct from the Classical construction قَارِعَةُ الطَّرِيقِ, which denotes part of a road.
The root-level source mentions the plural expression قَوَارِعُ الْقُرْآنِ and the unexplained phrase فَصِيلٌ مُقَرَّعٌ; neither has a separately identified QAC form group or sufficient supplied detail for a separate public entry.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The expressions قَوَارِعُ الْقُرْآنِ and فَصِيلٌ مُقَرَّعٌ occur in the root-level discussion, but the first is a plural expression without a supplied QAC form group and the second is cited without an explanation sufficient to establish its meaning confidently.