Quranic root
قرن
q · r · n
The root has two principal orientations: joining one thing to another, and a strong protruding or elevated feature.
The joining branch develops into coupling, association, pairing, companionship, relation, and being an equal or capable counterpart. The protrusion branch yields the meanings of horn and analogous ridges, edges, and projections.
- Maqāyīs · row 3764
- Mufradāt · row 1174
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- 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.
مُقْرِن
muqrin
- 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.
Having the ability or strength to manage, control, or accomplish something.
In the Quranic construction مُقْرِنِينَ لَهُ, the word describes being capable of dealing with or mastering the thing brought under human use.
- Lane · entry 20929
- Mufradāt · row 1174
Selected Quran examples
Quran 43:13word 20
“capable”
مُقْتَرِن
muqtarin
- 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.
Associated or accompanying another; joined with others.
Denotes the coming together of two or more beings or things in a shared relation or circumstance.
- Mufradāt · row 1174
Selected Quran examples
Quran 43:53word 11
“accompanying (him)”
مُقَرَّن
muqarran
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Bound or fastened together, especially bound in chains.
A passive participle describing persons or things made fast together; the Quran uses it for captives bound in fetters or chains.
- Mufradāt · row 1174
Selected Quran examples
قَرِين
qarīn
- 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.
A companion, associate, or accompanying counterpart.
In Quranic usage, the word can denote an individual's accompanying witness or another persistent counterpart, including an adverse companion; the plural is قُرَنَاء.
- Lane · entry 20936
- Mufradāt · row 1174
Selected Quran examples
قَرْن
qarn
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 23 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 generation or people of one period, succeeding another generation.
The Quran uses قَرْنٌ and قُرُونٌ for peoples or communities belonging to a particular time, especially in accounts of successive past generations.
- Lane · entry 20931
- Mufradāt · row 1174
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:38قَرِينًۭا(as) companion
- 4:38قَرِينًۭا(is he as) a companion
- 6:6قَرْنٍۢgenerations
- 6:6قَرْنًاgenerations
- 10:13ٱلْقُرُونَthe generations
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 21 Classical meanings
قَرَنَ
To connect, couple, or join one thing to another.
Used with two things brought into a joined or conjoined relation.
- Lane · entry 20927
قَارَنَ
To associate with someone or become that person's companion.
A reciprocal association expressed with a person as the object of companionship.
- Lane · entry 20928
أَقْرَنَ
To give or arrange something in pairs, two by two.
A Form IV usage concerning the pairing or distribution of things in twos.
- Lane · entry 20929
قِرْن
An opponent, competitor, adversary, or equal match.
Especially an equal in fighting, courage, knowledge, or another contested ability.
- Lane · entry 20930
قَرْن
One's equal or peer in age.
The fatḥa distinguishes this age-related use from قِرْن, the form used for an equal in fighting and similar matters.
- Lane · entry 20931
قَرْن
A projecting ridge, elevated edge, or extremity.
Used for the side or temporal ridge of the human head and the elevated part or edge of a desert; by analogy it may denote a mountain projection, a braid, a rim, or a comparable projecting feature.
- Lane · entry 20931
- Mufradāt · row 1174
قَرْن
A plant pod, such as the pod of the locust or carob tree.
A botanical use with plural قُرُون.
- Lane · entry 20931
قَرْن
A fleshy or pathological growth in female reproductive anatomy.
Described of a woman and, by analogy, of a she-camel; the human condition is associated with painful intercourse.
- Lane · entry 20931
- Mufradāt · row 1174
قَرْن
A gush or issue of sweat.
A bodily-flow meaning with plural قُرُون.
- Lane · entry 20931
قَرْن
A horn, or the bony horn structure of a sheep, goat, or cow.
The protruding animal structure also supplies analogous naming for other projecting features.
- Mufradāt · row 1174
قَرَن
A twisted-bark cord used to couple ploughing bulls.
The cord is fastened around each bull and joined at the middle to the plough apparatus.
- Lane · entry 20932
قَرَن
Sons of one mother by different fathers.
Reported as the plural أَقْرَان.
- Lane · entry 20932
قُرْنَة
The horn-like part of the uterus.
An anatomical term for a projecting uterine structure.
- Lane · entry 20933
قَرَن
A quiver or small case associated with a bow.
The term is applied to the quiver when it is paired or joined with the bow, and may denote a smaller case attached to a larger one.
- Mufradāt · row 1174
قِرَان
The combining of two things; especially combining the pilgrimage and the ʿumrah.
A conventional religious use for performing ḥajj and ʿumrah together, alongside the broader sense of joining two things.
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قَرُون
The self or person, conceived as joined to the body.
A lexical development from being paired or conjoined with something else.
- Mufradāt · row 1174
قَرُون
A camel characterized by paired or closely coordinated limb movement.
Includes a camel that places its hind foot where its forefoot was, and a she-camel whose hind legs draw near one another.
- Mufradāt · row 1174
قَرِينَة
A connection, relation, or thing associated with another.
The feminine derivative names something joined or serving as a counterpart to another thing.
- Lane · entry 20936
قَرِينَة
A clause of rhyming prose connected with a neighboring clause.
Two such connected clauses may be called قَرِينَتَانِ.
- Lane · entry 20936
قَرِينَة
Context.
Used in an unrestricted sense for contextual connection or surrounding indication.
- Lane · entry 20936
أَقْرَن
Horned or having horns.
An adjective describing an animal or other being possessing horns.
- Lane · entry 20938
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrences in the epithet ذُو الْقَرْنَيْنِ are included in the قَرْن form group, but the packet does not securely establish whether قَرْنَيْنِ there means two generations, two ages, or another traditional interpretation.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The lexical value of قَرْنَيْنِ in ذُو الْقَرْنَيْنِ at 18:83, 18:86, and 18:94 cannot be assigned more specifically from the supplied evidence without importing an external interpretation.