Quranic root
ردي
r · d · y
The root's central orientation is throwing, casting, or striking, including reciprocal casting.
From throwing or impact, the lexicon develops related uses for falling or plunging into destruction, causing death, rapid or bounding movement, and stones used as instruments. The garment term رِدَاء and the sense “to exceed” are treated in the lexical tradition as divergent from this central pattern.
- Maqāyīs · row 2008
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَدِيَ
radiya
- 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 perish or die.
The Quranic form is an imperfect verb used in a warning about perishing; the broader lexical discussion also associates the root with ruin and perdition.
- Lane · entry 23048
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:16word 10
“lest you perish”
أَرْدَى
ʾardā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To cause to perish; destroy or ruin.
A causative transitive use: one person or thing brings about another's ruin or destruction.
- Lane · entry 23051
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:137word 9
“so that they may ruin them”
Quran 37:56word 5
“ruined me”
Quran 41:23word 6
“It has ruined you”
تَرَدَّى
taraddā
- 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 fall, be overthrown, or plunge into destruction.
The Quranic use describes a fall into an abyss or ruin; the form may also describe becoming overthrown more generally.
- Lane · entry 23048
- Lane · entry 23052
Selected Quran examples
Quran 92:11word 6
“he falls”
مُتَرَدِّيَة
mutaraddiyah
- Part of speech
- Active participle · substantivized
- 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.
An animal that has fallen from an elevated place or into a pit and died.
In the Quranic dietary enumeration, it denotes an animal dead from such a fall and therefore not lawfully slaughtered.
- Lane · entry 23066
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:3word 14
“and that which has a fatal fall”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 5:3وَٱلْمُتَرَدِّيَةُand that which has a fatal fall
- 6:137لِيُرْدُوهُمْso that they may ruin them
- 20:16فَتَرْدَىٰlest you perish
- 37:56لَتُرْدِينِruined me
- 41:23أَرْدَىٰكُمْIt has ruined you
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 39 Classical meanings
رَدَى
To fall into a deep hollow, pit, or well, or from a mountain, and die.
A Form I use describing a fatal fall; the cited examples include falling into a cavity and falling from a mountain.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
To go away or depart.
Used in expressions asking where someone has gone.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
To break or batter a thing, especially a stone, with another stone or a pickaxe.
A transitive use involving breaking or pounding a hard object.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
To throw a stone or stones at someone, striking him.
The object is the person or thing at which the stone is thrown; the construction may emphasize both throwing and hitting.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
To dash or knock oneself against something.
A physical-impact construction, compared with the striking of a pickaxe against stone.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
Of a horse, to beat or batter the ground with its hooves while moving rapidly.
Refers to a gait between running and vigorous walking; the associated verbal noun denotes this manner of movement.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
To hop, leap, or proceed by raising one leg and moving on the other.
Used of playful movement by a girl or boy and of a crow or raven hopping.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَى
To increase beyond or exceed something, including an age or numerical limit.
The construction may take an object or an expressed threshold, such as fifty or eighty.
- Lane · entry 23048
رَدَّى
To make someone fall or throw him down into a hollow, pit, well, or similar depth; to overthrow him.
A causative Form II use distinct from the Form IV verb meaning to cause destruction.
- Lane · entry 23049
رَدَّى
To clothe someone with a رِدَاء.
A transitive clothing construction.
- Lane · entry 23049
رَادَى
To contend by throwing stones in defense of a people or party.
The construction specifies defending others through reciprocal or hostile stone-throwing.
- Lane · entry 23050
رَادَى
To endeavor to turn or entice someone, including by blandishment or deceit.
A reported synonymic use with verbs meaning to coax, outwit, or induce someone to turn toward an affair.
- Lane · entry 23050
أَرْدَى
To make a horse move with the ground-beating gait associated with رَدَى.
A specialized causative use referring to a horse's manner of movement.
- Lane · entry 23051
تَرَدَّى
To put on or wear a garment; by extension, to hang a sword from the shoulder or wear a sash.
The clothing use takes رِدَاء as its object or complement; the sword and sash applications are figurative extensions of wearing or carrying something across the shoulder.
- Lane · entry 23052
اِرْتَدَى
To carry or bear someone upon the shoulder, in the place of a garment worn there.
A rare conventional use explained through the position of the رِدَاء.
- Lane · entry 23053
رَدًى
Excess, redundance, or superfluity.
Used of excess in a gift, speech, or other quantity; this is a nominal lexical use, not merely the infinitive of perishing.
- Lane · entry 23054
رَدٍ
Perishing or doomed.
An adjective applied to a person; it is distinct in form from the verb and its infinitive.
- Lane · entry 23055
رِدْيَة
A mode or manner of wearing a رِدَاء.
Used in expressions describing someone as comely in the manner of wearing the garment.
- Lane · entry 23056
رَدَاة
A rock, piece of rock, or great mass of hard stone.
The plural and collective forms are also used for rocks or stone masses.
- Lane · entry 23057
رِدَاء
An outer wrapping garment, generally a single unsewn piece covering the upper body or lying over the shoulders and back.
A masculine noun for a familiar garment; it may also be used for a waist-wrapper in some descriptions.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
In the expression صِفْرُ رِدَائِهَا, lankness or slenderness of the belly.
A conventional figurative expression; the cited illustration does not establish a general gender restriction.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
Abundance of beneficence; figuratively, a life ample in its means.
Occurs in figurative expressions such as غَمْرُ الرِّدَاءِ.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
The beauty, softness, or delicacy of youth.
A figurative expression, رِدَاءُ الشَّبَابِ.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
The light or beauty of the sun.
A figurative expression, رِدَاءُ الشَّمْسِ.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
A sword.
A figurative extension based on the sword being hung from the neck or shoulder like a garment.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
A bow.
A figurative extension based on carrying the bow on the shoulder.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
A sash or shoulder ornament worn by women.
A figurative extension of the garment sense; also called وِشَاح.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
A bier.
A figurative extension based on a bier being carried on the shoulder.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
Debt, and by extension the burden of a household.
A figurative expression based on debt clinging to the debtor's neck like a garment clings to the shoulders.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
Intelligence or, in an opposing reported use, ignorance.
These are reported as contrasting figurative applications of the word; the entry preserves both lexical values rather than treating them as one combined sense.
- Lane · entry 23058
رِدَاء
Anything that constitutes a person's pride, ornament, or distinguishing adornment, and by extension something that disgraces.
The figurative use may refer to a person's house, father, animal, or another feature that either graces or discredits him.
- Lane · entry 23058
الرَّادِي
A lion.
Named from the lion's charging or dashing against its prey.
- Lane · entry 23061
مِرْدًى
A stone or piece of rock thrown or used to break other stones; a heavy stone implement for breaking or softening hard ground.
The word may denote a stone difficult to lift, a tool for breaking stone, or an implement used in hollowing hard ground and lizard burrows.
- Lane · entry 23062
مِرْدًى
Figuratively, a missile or crushing instrument of war; a person sent against opponents who crushes them.
Used in expressions for a formidable warrior or for someone notably enduring in contention and war.
- Lane · entry 23062
مِرْدًى
Figuratively, a horse hard like the stone called مِرْدًى, or a swift horse.
A poetic or figurative application with alternative explanations tied either to hardness, speed, or the idea of perdition.
- Lane · entry 23062
مِرْدًى
A sword, in one poetic interpretation.
A reported figurative interpretation based on the sword as an instrument of destruction.
- Lane · entry 23062
مِرْدًى
The heavy legs of camels or elephants.
A figurative plural use based on the heaviness and force of their tread, likened to stones.
- Lane · entry 23062
مِرْدًى
A pole used to propel a ship or boat; an oar.
A nautical use with a distinct instrument sense.
- Lane · entry 23062
المُرَدَّى
Lank or slender in the region where a sash is worn.
A descriptive expression for bodily slenderness at the sash area; the cited phrase is an illustration, not a general object-class restriction.
- Lane · entry 23065
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's historical Quran citation notation is not independently converted into modern locations; the modern examples here use only the QAC-supplied locations, including 92:11.
Some figurative رِدَاء and مِرْدًى branches are reported as attributed or poetic usages; they are retained because the lexical evidence explicitly records them, while reported alternatives are identified in their usage conditions.