Quranic root
قري
q · r · y
The root's central orientation is gathering and assembly; a qaryah is understood as a place where people gather.
The gathering idea develops into the settlement noun, collected water, and hospitality centered on a guest. Related lexical extensions include a continuous course or ordered way and bodily or animal terms associated with gathered structure.
- Maqāyīs · row 3766
- Mufradāt · row 1175
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 57
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
قَرْيَةٌ
qaryahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 57 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 settled inhabited locality: a town or village, and in Quranic usage also a city or other urban settlement.
Used in singular and plural forms for an inhabited settlement. Classical usage often distinguishes a qaryah as smaller than a madīnah, but the Quranic evidence also applies the word to larger cities and urban communities.
- Lane · entry 20946
- Mufradāt · row 1175
Selected Quran examples
The inhabitants or collective people of a settlement, by metonymy.
This reading occurs when the settlement name stands for its people or community, as in expressions concerning asking a town, its people being unjust, or a community's conduct. The same word may retain its literal place sense in other contexts.
- Mufradāt · row 1175
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:82word 2
“the town”
Quran 4:75word 19
“[the] town”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:58ٱلْقَرْيَةَtown
- 2:259قَرْيَةٍۢa township
- 4:75ٱلْقَرْيَةِ[the] town
- 6:92ٱلْقُرَىٰ(of) the cities
- 6:123قَرْيَةٍcity
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 9 Classical meanings
قَرَى
To entertain a guest or provide hospitality.
A transitive hospitality construction, specifically attested with a guest as its object.
- Lane · entry 20942
- Mufradāt · row 1175
اِفْتَرَى
To follow or pursue.
An attested Form VIII use distinct from the ordinary later meanings associated with this form.
- Lane · entry 20943
اِفْتَرَى
To investigate a country or countries; to make a diligent search.
An attested Form VIII use involving investigation or sustained searching.
- Lane · entry 20943
قِرًى
Hospitality or entertainment provided for a guest.
A verbal-noun expression for the hospitality offered to a guest.
- Lane · entry 20944
- Mufradāt · row 1175
قِرًى
Water collected in a trough or tank for beasts to drink.
A specialized noun for water gathered and kept in a receptacle for animals.
- Lane · entry 20944
قَرِىٌّ
A place where water runs to, in, or into meadows; a meadow.
A lexical noun describing a water-fed meadow or the place associated with its watercourse.
- Lane · entry 20945
قَرِيَّةٌ
The yard of a ship; a squared piece of wood on the head of a ship's mast.
A technical nautical term.
- Lane · entry 20948
قَارِيَهٌ
A certain bird.
A specialized bird name.
- Lane · entry 20949
قَرْوَاءُ
A long-backed she-camel.
An adjective or descriptive noun specifically applied to a female camel.
- Lane · entry 20951
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The inhabitants sense is a documented Quranic metonymic or interpretive use; individual verses may instead be understood literally as referring to the settlement itself.
The root-level idea of gathering explains semantic development but is not an additional direct Quranic sense of قَرْيَةٌ.