Quranic root
رهو
r · h · w
The root centers on ease, spaciousness, stillness, and an open or level spatial condition; it also has a distinct branch concerning terrain that may be depressed or elevated.
The lexical evidence connects ease and stillness with gentle or continuous movement, while the spatial branch extends to openings, broad or level expanses, hollows, and elevations. Several derived forms develop these ideas into approach, reconciliation, enabling, and specialized nominal usages.
- Maqāyīs · row 2177
- Mufradāt · row 594
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَهْوٌ
rahwun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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 open, unobstructed passage or broad expanse; in the Quranic command, leave the sea open as a passage.
Quran 44:24 uses the noun in the expression رَهْوًا. The interpretation emphasizes making a broad way or open passage through the sea.
- Lane · entry 24778
- Mufradāt · row 594
Selected Quran examples
Quran 44:24word 3
“at rest”
Still, calm, or motionless.
In Quran 44:24, this is an explicit alternative interpretation of leaving the sea still or calm.
- Lane · entry 24778
- Mufradāt · row 594
Selected Quran examples
Quran 44:24word 3
“at rest”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 44:24رَهْوًا ۖat rest
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 38 Classical meanings
رَهَا
To part or make an opening between the legs.
A Form I verbal construction; this physical opening is also the basis for the Quranic expression involving an open passage.
- Lane · entry 24778
رَهْوٌ
Easy, gentle, quiet, and continuous movement; of camels, movement in succession.
Applied to going or pace. The same lexical record also reports contrasting forceful movement, treated separately below.
- Lane · entry 24778
رَهْوٌ
Light, quick, or vehement movement.
A reported movement sense that can contrast with the gentle or quiet sense.
- Lane · entry 24778
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
Stillness, calm, quiet, or motionlessness; also still or unmoving rain.
Used of such things as sea, heat, actions, and rain in broader Classical Arabic usage.
- Lane · entry 24778
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوًا
Quietly and without constraint; willingly, voluntarily, or without being asked.
An adverbial use describing an action or a gift performed without compulsion or solicitation.
- Lane · entry 24778
رَهَا
Of a bird, to spread the wings without flapping them.
A Form I usage specifically applied to a bird’s manner of flight.
- Lane · entry 24778
رَاهَاهُ
To approach or draw near to something.
The construction may describe approaching puberty or virility.
- Lane · entry 24779
رَاهَاهُ
To aid another in foolishness or stupidity.
A Form III usage equated with supporting or joining someone in folly.
- Lane · entry 24779
أَرْهَى
To find or meet with a wide or ample place.
A Form IV verbal use.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To take as wife a woman described as wide in the vulva.
A specialized Form IV marital and anatomical usage; the description belongs to this lexical construction, not to women generally.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To continue supplying food and drink to guests, out of liberality.
A Form IV causative construction concerning sustained hospitality.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To do well or perform properly.
Recorded as an admonition to a shooter or thrower who has performed badly.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To be gentle with oneself or show oneself mercy.
A Form IV reflexive-directed construction.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To become within someone’s power or reach, or become possible or practicable; to make something so.
The intransitive and causative constructions are both attested: a thing may become possible, or someone may make it possible for another.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To leave something until it becomes still or motionless.
A Form IV construction of causing or allowing stillness.
- Lane · entry 24780
أَرْهَى
To persist or continue in eating the bird called رَهْوٌ, identified with a crane or similar aquatic bird.
A specialized Form IV construction describing continual eating of that bird.
- Lane · entry 24780
تَرَاهَيَا
To make peace or become reconciled with one another.
A reciprocal Form VI usage.
- Lane · entry 24781
اِرْتَهَوْا
To become commingled, confounded, or confused.
A Form IX usage describing mutual mixing or confusion.
- Lane · entry 24782
رَهِيَّةٌ
A prepared food of grain or wheat with milk, made by rubbing or grinding the grain, pounding it, and cooking it with milk.
The preparation may begin with ground wheat or with ears of corn rubbed and bruised before milk is added.
- Lane · entry 24782
- Lane · entry 24788
رَهْوٌ
An intervening space or gap between two things.
Illustrated by the space between the two humps of a camel of the falij type.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
A terrain feature that may be a depression or an elevation, including a water-collecting hollow, a hillock, or, in one reported usage, a mountain.
The word is explicitly reported with opposite topographical values; the depression may hold stagnant water, while the elevation may be a hillock or high ground.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
A passage through a market with sellers seated along its sides.
A lexical report attributed to a supplementary authority and not present in every copy of the cited lexicon.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
Wide, ample, or spacious; specifically, a well wide at the mouth.
The well usage is a concrete application of the general spatial adjective.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
A derogatory epithet for a woman, especially one described as sexually indiscriminate or as having a wide vulva.
A specialized anatomical and moralized usage recorded for the noun.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
Dispersed or scattered.
An adjectival or nominal description of something spread apart.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
A company or group following one another in succession.
Used of people or horsemen, including a raiding party proceeding consecutively.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
A bird, identified by some as a crane and by others as a similar aquatic bird.
The plural is reported as رِهَاءٌ.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوٌ
A headcovering worn next to the head and liable to become dirty quickly.
A specialized nominal usage.
- Lane · entry 24783
رَهْوَةٌ
A state or condition of elevation or depression.
The two opposite topographical values are both explicitly reported.
- Lane · entry 24784
رَهْوَانٌ
A depressed piece of land or ground.
A specialized nominal form for low-lying terrain.
- Lane · entry 24786
رَهْوَانٌ
A horse with an easy back in movement; also a pacing horse in a reported colloquial usage.
The form and pronunciation are reported with variation in the lexical record.
- Lane · entry 24786
رَهَاءٌ
A wide or level tract of land, especially an even expanse or plain often associated with mirage.
A specialized noun for broad, level terrain.
- Lane · entry 24787
رَهَاءٌ
A dust-coloured or smoke-like hue or haze.
This sense is reported as an additional lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 24787
رَاهٍ
Ample, unstraitened, pleasant, or easy circumstances; an easy journey.
Applied especially to life and to a journey characterized by ease.
- Lane · entry 24789
رَاهٍ
Still or motionless.
A nominal or adjectival use separate from the description of an easy life or journey.
- Lane · entry 24789
رَاهٍ
Continuing or permanent, especially of food; the corresponding feminine form may be applied to wine.
A lexical comparison with رَاهِنٌ is recorded for the lasting-quality sense.
- Lane · entry 24789
رَاهِيَةٌ
A bee.
The designation is associated with the insect’s quiet manner of flying.
- Lane · entry 24790
مِرْهَاةٌ
A quick, swift, or fleet mare.
The lexical record reports variant forms and plural formations for this specialized equine term.
- Lane · entry 24791
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Quran 44:24 is retained with two lexically attested interpretations: leaving an open passage through the sea and leaving the sea still or calm.
The Quranic occurrence is the inflected form رَهْوًا; the public headword is normalized to the noun citation form رَهْوٌ.