Quranic root
ردد
r · d · d
The root centers on returning, sending something back, or causing it to revert from a course or state.
From the core notion of return, the lexical family extends to restoration, repulsion, reversal, repeated movement, support that prevents falling, apostasy as a return to unbelief, and several specialized bodily and figurative uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 1995
- Mufradāt · row 543
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 14
- Quran senses
- 59
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَدَّ
radda
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 36 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 return, restore, send back, or bring something or someone back to a former place, holder, condition, or advantage.
May take a direct object or occur with إلى for return to a destination or authority. The Quranic expression about putting hands into mouths describes putting them back there, with the surrounding context indicating repeated action.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:13word 1
“So We restored him”
Quran 17:6word 2
“We gave back”
To turn someone or something back, repel it, avert it, or prevent it from proceeding toward an outcome.
Includes turning a person back from a course or former state and averting an event, benefit, or punishment. The object need not be a physical entity.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:149word 8
“they will turn you back”
To refer an affair, dispute, or judgment to an authority for consideration or decision.
Constructed with إلى for referring the matter to a person or authority; this is a conventional extension of returning an affair to its proper source.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:59word 15
“refer it”
تَرَدَّدَ
taraddada
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- 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 waver, hesitate, or vacillate in uncertainty, being unable to settle on a course.
The Quranic usage describes inward hesitation and perplexity rather than merely repeated physical movement.
- Lane · entry 22917
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:45word 14
“they waver”
اِرْتَدَّ
āirtadda
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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.
To return, go back, retrace one's route, or revert to a former state.
May describe ordinary movement back, the return of a faculty such as sight, or turning away from a prior course without necessarily referring to religion.
- Lane · entry 22919
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:64word 6
“So they returned”
Quran 12:96word 8
“then returned (his) sight”
To turn away from Islam and return to unbelief; to apostatize.
This religious sense is a specialized use of returning from one state or allegiance to another and is explicitly associated with turning away from one's religion.
- Lane · entry 22919
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:217word 39
“turns away”
Quran 5:54word 5
“turns back”
مَرَدّ
maradd
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 return, restoration, or destination to which something or someone returns.
Used for the possibility or occurrence of being returned, including return to God or to a final destination.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:76word 13
“(for) return”
Quran 40:43word 15
“our return”
A means or possibility of turning something back, repelling it, or averting it.
In the construction لا مَرَدَّ لَهُ, it means that there is no possibility or means of averting or turning the matter back.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 30:43word 11
“(can be) averted”
Quran 42:47word 9
“averting”
مَرْدُود
mardūd
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Returned, sent back, or brought back.
Describes something or someone subjected to the act of return, including a return to a former destination or state.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 79:10word 3
“indeed be returned”
Repelled, averted, or unable to be warded off.
In the Quranic expression for an unrepelled punishment, the participle describes something that cannot be turned back or prevented.
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:76word 14
“(be) repelled”
رَادّ
rādd
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who returns, restores, or takes something or someone back.
The merged form رَادِّي is the sound masculine plural active participle in a possessive construction and is represented by this citation form.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:7word 18
“(will) restore him”
Quran 28:85word 6
“(will) surely take you back”
Quran 16:71word 11
“would hand over”
One who repels, averts, or turns something back.
May describe an agent capable of preventing an event or benefit from reaching its recipient.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:107word 14
“repeller”
رَدّ
radd
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- 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.
Return, restoration, or taking back.
Used for returning something to its former holder or position, including the taking back of a divorced wife in the relevant legal context.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:228word 24
“to take them back”
Repulsion, rejection, or turning something back.
May describe warding off an approaching thing or rejecting it rather than accepting it.
- Lane · entry 22913
- Mufradāt · row 543
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:40word 7
“to repel it”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:85يُرَدُّونَthey will be sent back
- 2:109يَرُدُّونَكُمthey could turn you back
- 2:217يَرُدُّوكُمْthey turn you away
- 2:217يَرْتَدِدْturns away
- 2:228بِرَدِّهِنَّto take them back
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 65 Classical meanings
رَدَّ
To reply or answer; to rebut, refute, reject, or repudiate another person's statement.
Includes returning an answer, returning a salutation, disputing a claim, or refusing assent to an opinion.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To shut or close a door.
A specialized transitive use with a door as object.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To repeat or do something again.
The action is performed again, including repeated collection or repetition of an act.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To yield a return or profit.
A figurative use in which something is said to bring a return to its owner.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To reduce something to an original or specified state, amount, or measure.
Includes reducing a thing to its original condition or altering a stated fractional measure.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To bring a person or the soul to a specified time or term.
A specialized construction referring to bringing life or the soul to the end of its appointed duration.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To restrict or appropriate someone or something to a particular affair.
The construction limits the subject to the specified matter or concern.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّ
To render or cause something to become another state, including its contrary.
A causative construction with a second object describing the resulting state.
- Lane · entry 22913
رَدَّدَ
To cause someone or something to return repeatedly or again and again.
Form II intensifies or makes frequent the returning expressed by Form I.
- Lane · entry 22914
رَدَّدَ
To make someone waver, vacillate, or become perplexed.
A derived figurative use describing agitation between alternatives or inability to see the right course.
- Lane · entry 22914
رَدَّدَ
To reiterate speech, a sound, or a letter; to quaver or trill it repeatedly.
Applies to repeated utterance, chanting, recitation, animal sounds, or a voice resonating in the throat.
- Lane · entry 22914
رَادَّ
To endeavor to turn someone from or toward a thing.
A reciprocal or deliberate attempt to redirect another person.
- Lane · entry 22915
رَادَّ
To dispute with someone by answering, rebutting, or bandying words.
The construction describes reciprocal verbal opposition.
- Lane · entry 22915
رَادَّ
To dissolve or annul a sale by mutual agreement.
A commercial reciprocal construction referring to undoing the transaction together.
- Lane · entry 22915
أَرَدَّ
Of a female animal, to develop milk or a swollen, milk-filled udder shortly before giving birth.
The lexical descriptions include sheep, goats, and camels and may also mention swelling of the udder or vulva.
- Lane · entry 22916
أَرَدَّ
Of a man long without a wife or away from home, to have seminal fluid said to have returned into his back.
A physiological and traditional lexical description, distinct from the later figurative senses.
- Lane · entry 22916
أَرَدَّ
To be or become very libidinous.
A figurative extension of the bodily description and applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 22916
أَرَدَّ
To become swollen with anger or angry in countenance.
A figurative use describing visible anger or an agitated state.
- Lane · entry 22916
أَرَدَّ
Of the sea, to become tumultuous and full of waves.
Describes turbulent water rather than a return or reversal.
- Lane · entry 22916
تَرَدَّدَ
To return repeatedly, frequent a place, or repair to someone again and again.
Includes repeatedly visiting assemblies or returning to a person or place.
- Lane · entry 22917
تَرَدَّدَ
To move or go to and fro, back and forth.
Applies to a suspended object, the soul, or another thing undergoing repeated reciprocal movement.
- Lane · entry 22917
تَرَدَّدَ
To labor or exert oneself through repeated efforts in an affair.
A figurative extension of repeated going to and fro.
- Lane · entry 22917
تَرَدَّدَ
For a sound or voice to be repeated, reproduced, or reiterated.
Includes repeated utterance, stammering, and a voice resonating in the throat.
- Lane · entry 22917
تَرَادَّ
To retreat or retire by degrees, or for things to return reciprocally.
Includes people retiring little by little and water flowing back from its channel.
- Lane · entry 22918
تَرَادَّ
For seminal fluid to return gradually into the back.
A specialized bodily use associated with prolonged absence from a wife.
- Lane · entry 22918
تَرَادَّ
For two parties to dispute, each rebutting the other's words.
A reciprocal verbal construction.
- Lane · entry 22918
تَرَادَّ
For two parties to reject, dissolve, or annul a sale by mutual consent.
A reciprocal commercial construction.
- Lane · entry 22918
اِرْتَدَّ
For a sought thing to be refused or denied to someone.
Said of a person who fails to obtain what he seeks; this is distinct from the ordinary intransitive return.
- Lane · entry 22919
اِسْتَرَدَّ
To seek, demand, reclaim, or repossess something that one wants returned.
Includes revoking or recalling a gift and asking another person to restore an item.
- Lane · entry 22920
رَدٌّ
A return or yield of revenue from property.
A figurative nominal use describing an estate that produces much revenue.
- Lane · entry 22921
رَدٌّ
Difficulty or hesitation in speech that causes repeated utterance.
A specialized description of impeded articulation or repeated letters.
- Lane · entry 22921
رَدٌّ
Something rejected, returned after being taken, or judged wrong or unacceptable.
Includes an item not received or accepted and an opinion rejected as erroneous or contrary to established practice.
- Lane · entry 22921
رَدٌّ
A coin that is not current and is returned to the person offering it.
A specialized commercial use, especially of a dirham that will not pass.
- Lane · entry 22921
رَدٌّ
A thing that is bad, corrupt, disapproved, or abominable.
A figurative evaluative use derived from rejection.
- Lane · entry 22921
رَدٌّ
A reply or answer.
A noun for a response to another person's statement.
- Lane · entry 22921
رَدٌّ
A riding or carriage camel brought back from pasture to the dwelling.
The designation is explained by the animal's being brought back on the day of travel.
- Lane · entry 22921
رِدٌّ
A support, stay, refuge, or asylum.
Lane also records this as a Quran reading variant, but the supplied QAC forms do not include that reading as a separate form.
- Lane · entry 22922
رَدَّةٌ
Unseemliness or ugliness in the face, especially a quality that makes the eye recoil despite some comeliness.
A facial quality or defect; the examples do not impose a general gender restriction.
- Lane · entry 22923
رَدَّةٌ
A receding chin.
A physical feature associated in the lexical description with a mixture of comeliness and unseemliness.
- Lane · entry 22923
رَدَّةٌ
The returned sound of an echo, or the echo of a mountain.
A sound returning from a surface or place.
- Lane · entry 22923
رَدَّةٌ
A gift, stipend, or benefaction.
A nominal use attested in traditional usage.
- Lane · entry 22923
رَدَّةٌ
Affection or desire for someone.
Occurs in an idiomatic expression describing attachment or longing.
- Lane · entry 22923
رِدَّةٌ
Apostasy, specifically returning from Islam to unbelief.
A specialized noun derived from اِرْتَدَّ and restricted lexically to religious apostasy in this use.
- Lane · entry 22924
رِدَّةٌ
A camel's drinking of water a second time, with the milk returning into the udder.
A specialized pastoral term for repeated drinking and its effect on milk.
- Lane · entry 22924
رِدَّةٌ
Swelling or filling of a she-camel's teats or udder from collected milk, including milk appearing before birth.
Applies to several closely related descriptions of milk-filled swelling in female camels or other animals.
- Lane · entry 22924
رِدَّةٌ
A remainder, remnant, or anything left over.
A nominal extension from what remains or returns.
- Lane · entry 22924
رَدَادٌ
Desire for the return or restoration of something lost or gone.
A noun of desire for recovery or restoration, especially in a commercial context.
- Lane · entry 22927
رَدِيدٌ
Clouds from which the water has been poured forth.
A specialized description of rain-bearing or rain-discharged clouds.
- Lane · entry 22928
رَدِيدٌ
A compact limb or bodily member.
A physical-description term for a short, compact member.
- Lane · entry 22928
رَدَّادٌ
A setter of broken bones.
A professional designation derived from putting a displaced bone back into place.
- Lane · entry 22930
رَادٌّ
Unseemly or ugly, especially when applied to a man.
A direct adjectival use distinct from the Quranic active-participle sense of one who repels.
- Lane · entry 22932
رَادَّةٌ
A return or profit; in negated expressions, the absence of any profit or return.
A substantivized feminine active participle in idioms about an affair having no beneficial return.
- Lane · entry 22933
رَادَّةٌ
The crosspiece of wood at the front of a cart, set between its shafts.
A concrete technical noun for a cart component.
- Lane · entry 22933
أَرَدُّ
More or most profitable, productive, or likely to yield a return.
A comparative or superlative adjective used of an affair.
- Lane · entry 22934
مُرِدٌّ
An animal whose udder is swollen or filled with milk before giving birth, or which is swollen from water or related bodily conditions.
Includes female animals near parturition and animals described as heavy or swollen after drinking much water.
- Lane · entry 22936
مُرِدٌّ
A man long without a wife or away from home, with the associated traditional description of retained seminal fluid; by extension, very libidinous or angry.
The sexual and anger senses are figurative or specialized extensions within this headword.
- Lane · entry 22936
مُرِدٌّ
A sea tumultuous with waves or having much water.
A specialized description of abundant or turbulent water.
- Lane · entry 22936
مِرَدٌّ
A man who repeatedly repels an opponent and wheels away and returns to the fight.
A specialized description of repeated retreat and renewed engagement in combat.
- Lane · entry 22937
مُرَدَّدٌ
A man confounded or perplexed and unable to see the right course.
A participial adjective for mental uncertainty; this Classical use is distinct from the Quranic Form V verb entry.
- Lane · entry 22939
مَرْدُودٌ
A saying that has been rebutted and reiterated, or answered back against.
A specialized description of a statement rejected in reply and repeatedly contested.
- Lane · entry 22940
مَرْدُودٌ
Shut or closed; specifically, a door that is not opened.
A specialized passive-participial description of a closed door.
- Lane · entry 22940
مَرْدُودٌ
A divorced woman sent back to her parents' house, or a woman taken back after divorce.
A substantivized passive participle in a conventional social and marital usage.
- Lane · entry 22940
مَرْدُودَةٌ
A razor.
A substantivized feminine passive participle, explained by the razor being turned back into its handle.
- Lane · entry 22941
مُرْتَدٌّ
An apostate, especially one who returns from Islam to unbelief.
A personal noun derived from the Form VIII religious sense.
- Lane · entry 22942
مُتَرَدِّدٌ
A man compact and short in build, or extremely short.
A physical-description adjective distinct from the mental sense of hesitation.
- Lane · entry 22943
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
رَآدِّي is treated as an inflected sound masculine plural active participle in a possessive construction and is therefore merged under the citation form رَادّ.
The Lane entry رِدٌّ reports a Quran reading variant meaning support or refuge, but no corresponding QAC form group or secure QAC word location is supplied; it is retained as a Classical lexical meaning rather than assigned to a Quranic form.
Lane's historical Quran citation notation is not used to generate modern verse locations; all Quran examples use only locations supplied by QAC.