Quranic root
رود
r · w · d
The root is centered on going to and fro in pursuit of something, especially moving through a field or direction while searching; from this develop meanings of seeking, gently approaching or inducing, and willing or intending.
The semantic path runs from movement and roaming to searching and selecting, then to the gentleness associated with careful seeking. The Form IV meaning of willing or intending is treated as a developed lexical branch, while the Quranic Form III meaning retains the sense of trying to turn or induce another.
- Maqāyīs · row 2181
- Mufradāt · row 596
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 148
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
رَاوَدَ
rāwada
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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 try to turn, induce, or persuade someone toward or away from something, using persistent effort, blandishment, or artifice.
Commonly followed by عن or على. The construction presents an effort to alter another person's decision, stance, or compliance.
- Lane · entry 24883
- Mufradāt · row 596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:61word 2
“We will try to get permission”
To seek sexual intercourse with someone by enticement or persuasion.
In the construction راوده عن نفسه, the object of the attempted persuasion is sexual access or intercourse; this is a specific Quran-attested use of the broader inducing construction.
- Lane · entry 24883
- Mufradāt · row 596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:23word 1
“And sought to seduce him”
أَرَادَ
ʾarāda
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- Quran occurrences
- 139 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 want, wish, will, or choose an object or action.
The ordinary agentive use expresses a person's or other capable subject's inclination or decision concerning an object, action, or outcome.
- Lane · entry 24884
- Mufradāt · row 596
To intend, mean, aim at, or pursue an outcome.
This use emphasizes directed purpose or what a person seeks to bring about, including an intended result or goal; it can overlap with ordinary wishing without being limited to an inward desire.
- Lane · entry 24884
- Mufradāt · row 596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:88word 15
“I intend”
Quran 28:83word 7
“desire”
Of God, to will an outcome by determining, prescribing, or decreeing it.
When the subject is God, the Quranic use is not a human-like psychological inclination; it denotes the determined or normative divine will, including what God prescribes or brings about.
- Lane · entry 24884
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:185word 28
“Intends”
To be about or ready to do something, especially of an inanimate thing approaching a state or event.
In the construction أراد أن followed by an event, an inanimate subject may be described as tending or being ready to undergo that event, as with a wall about to fall.
- Lane · entry 24884
- Mufradāt · row 596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:77word 15
“(that) want(ed)”
رُوَيْد
ruwayd
- 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.
Gently, gradually, or for a little while; a request to proceed slowly or grant brief respite.
Used as an adverbial or imperative-like expression, including the Quranic use meaning to give a little time or respite.
- Lane · entry 24890
- Mufradāt · row 596
Selected Quran examples
Quran 86:17word 4
“little”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:26أَرَادَ(did) intend
- 2:108تُرِيدُونَ(do) you wish
- 2:185يُرِيدُIntends
- 2:185يُرِيدُintends
- 2:228أَرَادُوٓا۟they wish
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 34 Classical meanings
رَادَ
To come and go, move to and fro, or remain unsettled; of animals, to roam or graze while moving through a pasture, and of wind, to veer or move about.
This is the basic Form I movement branch, distinct from the later meanings of searching and willing.
- Lane · entry 24882
رَادَ
To be restless or sleepless, as when one's pillow does not remain still.
Used figuratively of restlessness caused by illness or anxiety.
- Lane · entry 24882
رَادَ
To search for, seek, or look for something, especially pasture, water, sustenance, or a place to settle; to select the best available place or resource.
The seeking is traditionally associated with going to and fro while searching; it can also describe birds seeking sustenance or a person looking for a suitable place for a practical need.
- Lane · entry 24882
رَادَ الدَّارَ
To question or interrogate a house or abode about a person who is sought or remembered.
A conventional expression involving questioning the dwelling rather than directly questioning the person.
- Lane · entry 24882
رَادَ الدَّوَابَّ
To pasture or let beasts graze.
A transitive Form I use, related to the movement of grazing animals but lexically distinct from merely seeking pasture.
- Lane · entry 24882
أَرْوَدَ
To proceed gently, softly, or leisurely; to treat someone gently, grant respite, or leave someone for a while.
The intransitive use concerns manner or pace, while the transitive use concerns gentle treatment or delay.
- Lane · entry 24884
أَرَادَهُ عَلَى
To induce, incite, constrain, or make someone do something.
This classical construction takes a person as object and an action or matter as the thing toward which the person is induced; it is not the same as simply wanting an object.
- Lane · entry 24884
تَرَوَّدَ
To tremble or quake because of extreme softness, tenderness, or fatness.
A rare Form V bodily description.
- Lane · entry 24885
اِسْتَرْوَدَ
To return and become gentle or submissive to a command.
A conventional usage reported in connection with returning to God's command.
- Lane · entry 24887
رَادَةٌ
A woman who goes to and fro among the tents or houses of her female neighbors.
A feminine nominal use describing habitual movement between neighboring households.
- Lane · entry 24888
رَادَةٌ
A soft or tender woman.
This adjectival use is distinct from the expression for a woman who roves among neighboring houses.
- Lane · entry 24888
رَادَةٌ
Of a wind, moving or veering to and fro, whether violently or gently.
The adjective can describe either strong commotion or a gentle moving wind according to context.
- Lane · entry 24888
رِيدٌ
Will, wish, or desire; also the thing wished for and pursued, or a particular manner of wishing, with associated love or solicitude.
A nominal lexical branch with its own headword and semantic profile; it is not treated as merely another inflection of أَرَادَ.
- Lane · entry 24891
الرِّيَادُ
A wild bull, so called because it moves to and fro while grazing.
A conventional animal name derived from roaming or grazing movement.
- Lane · entry 24895
الرِّيَادُ
A man who comes and goes, especially one accustomed to visiting women.
A figurative or socially marked application of the movement-based noun.
- Lane · entry 24895
الرِّوَنْدُ الصِّينِيُّ
Chinese rhubarb, a medicinal plant used as a cooling remedy, especially for the liver.
A foreign technical plant name included under this spelling although its non-Arabic etymology is noted.
- Lane · entry 24897
رَائِدٌ
One or a thing that moves to and fro; applied to grazing beasts, moving wind, or a restless person.
An active-participial noun whose movement sense can be extended to a person uneasy on a pillow or to a thing moving within the eye.
- Lane · entry 24901
رَائِدُ العَيْنِ
A mote or other foreign matter that moves to and fro in the eye.
A specialized anatomical expression.
- Lane · entry 24901
رَائِدٌ
The handle of a hand-mill used to turn the millstone.
A concrete instrument name.
- Lane · entry 24901
رَائِدٌ
A scout or forerunner sent ahead of a people to seek pasture, water, rain-rich places, or a suitable place to settle, and to choose the best of them.
The noun is also extended to a person sent ahead to seek a need, knowledge, or another objective, and to a precursor of a later event or deed.
- Lane · entry 24901
رَائِدٌ
A person who has no place in which to alight or abide.
A specialized application of the forerunner or roaming sense.
- Lane · entry 24901
رَائِدَةٌ
A substantive denoting seeking or willing, used in place of اِرْتِيَادٌ or إِرَادَةٌ.
A nominalized feminine form with an abstract function rather than an ordinary feminine personal description.
- Lane · entry 24902
أَرْوَدُ
Gentle, quiet, and unobtrusive in operation or change.
An adjective describing a process whose effects occur softly or without being noticed.
- Lane · entry 24903
أَرْيَدُ
More desirous than another.
A comparative form occurring in a conventional proverb; it is explained as an altered form related to أَرْوَدُ.
- Lane · entry 24903
مَرَادٌ
A place where camels go to and fro while grazing, or a place where the wind comes and goes.
A place noun centered on repeated movement through or across a location.
- Lane · entry 24905
مُرَادٌ
What is willed, wished, sought, chosen, intended, or meant.
A passive-derived noun for the object or outcome of willing, seeking, choosing, saying, or action.
- Lane · entry 24906
مِرْوَدٌ
A small probe or applicator used to apply kohl to the eyes.
The name is associated with passing the instrument to and fro along the eyelids; its plural is مَرَاوِدُ.
- Lane · entry 24908
مِرْوَدٌ
The iron pivot of a pulley sheave.
A technical mechanical use.
- Lane · entry 24908
مِرْوَدٌ
A wooden pin, peg, or stake.
A concrete implement sense, synonymous with وَتِدٌ in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 24908
مِرْوَدٌ
An iron swivel or turning attachment on a horse's bit, halter, or a hawk's leash.
The term can refer to the rotating attachment itself or to the paired rings at the end of a horse's headstall.
- Lane · entry 24908
مِرْوَدٌ
A joint or articulation.
An anatomical or structural use, synonymous with مَفْصِلٌ.
- Lane · entry 24908
مِرْوَدٌ
A limit or extent to which someone runs or is allowed to proceed.
A figurative use associated with granting delay or leaving someone a period of latitude.
- Lane · entry 24908
مُرِيدٌ
A religious aspirant undergoing probation, or a devotee devoted to complying with God's will.
A conventional post-classical religious-technical use of the active participle.
- Lane · entry 24909
مُسْتَرَادٌ
A person whose like is sought after or coveted because of the high regard in which that person is held.
Used in the idiom فلان مستراد لمثله and its feminine counterpart; the construction concerns the desirability of an equal or counterpart.
- Lane · entry 24911
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic Form III and Form IV verbs are separate lexical forms: رَاوَدَ concerns trying to turn or induce another person, while أَرَادَ primarily concerns willing, intending, or pursuing an outcome.
The Form IV Quranic uses include divine, normative, and inanimate constructions; these should not all be reduced to a single human psychological sense.