Quranic root
ريع
r · y · ʿ
The root has two principal semantic orientations: elevation or highness, and return or reversion.
The elevation branch extends to high ground, increase, yield, surplus, and the first or prime part of something; the separate return branch yields reversion and reply-related uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 2201
- Mufradāt · row 604
- 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.
رِيعٌ
rīʿun
- 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.
A high or elevated place or stretch of ground, visible from afar.
In the Quranic expression بِكُلِّ رِيعٍ, referring to elevated places on which structures or monuments are built.
- Lane · entry 25129
- Mufradāt · row 604
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:128word 3
“elevation”
A road or mountain pass.
An alternative interpretation of the same Quranic expression بِكُلِّ رِيعٍ; the word may be understood as a route or opening through mountainous ground.
- Lane · entry 25129
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 26:128رِيعٍelevation
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
رَاعَ
To increase, grow, become abundant, or thrive.
Used of wheat, food, trees and their produce, crops, and camels in the sense that they increase or have many young.
- Lane · entry 25123
رَاعَ
To become redundant or remain over and above what is required.
Used of food, flour, or anything left in excess, including something remaining in a person's possession.
- Lane · entry 25123
رَاعَ
To return, revert, or come back to a former place or condition.
Used of people, camels, vomit, or anything returning; it may also describe returning inward or returning in response to exhortation or a sound.
- Lane · entry 25123
رَاعَ
To draw or gather oneself together.
A plural usage describing people collecting or drawing themselves together.
- Lane · entry 25123
رَاعَ
To become torn or rent.
Attested in a poetic description in which one side becomes torn when another side is sewn.
- Lane · entry 25123
رَاعَ
To return a reply or answer.
A construction in which a response is returned to another person; distinct from physical return.
- Lane · entry 25123
رَيَّعَ
To ascend or climb upon a high place.
Used with رِيعَةٌ, a noun for an elevated place.
- Lane · entry 25124
أَرَاعَ
To increase or become increased in growth or yield.
Used especially of wheat and seed-produce that increase or thrive.
- Lane · entry 25125
أَرَاعَ
To increase or augment something, or cause it to grow.
A transitive causative use applied to a thing that is made to increase.
- Lane · entry 25125
تَرَيَّعَ
To flow, run, or move hither and thither without a direct course; to overflow.
Used of grease, gravy, oil, clarified butter, or water; figuratively, hands may overflow with successive acts of generosity.
- Lane · entry 25126
تَرَيَّعَ
Of a mirage, to quiver, vibrate, or move to and fro.
Describes the coming and going or agitated motion of a mirage.
- Lane · entry 25126
تَرَيَّعَ
To become confounded or perplexed, as though wavering and unable to see the right course.
A figurative use associated with vacillation or loss of direction.
- Lane · entry 25126
تَرَيَّعَ
To pause, hesitate, hold back, refrain, or abstain.
Used of delaying or refraining from an affair; the same branch includes holding back from undertaking something.
- Lane · entry 25126
- Lane · entry 25140
رَيْعٌ
Increase, growth, abundance, or yield.
A noun for the increase produced by food, land, or other things.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
Revenue or yield arising from the increase of land.
A derived economic use referring to returns from productive land.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
Abundant milk.
Used in describing a she-camel whose milk is plentiful.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
A surplus, redundancy, residue, or portion left over.
Used of excess flour or meal, risen dough, seed for sowing, and redundant portions of clothing or armor.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
The first, prime, or most excellent part or period of something.
Used of the prime of youth or youthful vigor, the early part of the day after sunrise, and the initial or most prominent phase of a phenomenon.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
A successive pace or rate of movement.
Used of a she-camel whose pace follows one rate after another.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
A reply or answer, especially in the expression of having none to give.
The idiom فُلَانٌ لَيْسَ لَهُ رَيْعٌ means that a person has no reply or answer to offer.
- Lane · entry 25128
رَيْعٌ
Fright or fear.
A nominal use equated with رَوْعٌ.
- Lane · entry 25128
رِيعٌ
A mountain or elevated mountain mass.
A broader geographical use distinct from the Quranic high-place interpretation.
- Lane · entry 25129
رِيعٌ
The channel of a valley torrent descending from elevated ground.
Used of the watercourse formed around or below high land.
- Lane · entry 25129
رِيعٌ
A high mound, heap of sand, or hill.
A geographical use for a raised heap or hill, including a raised mound around a well.
- Lane · entry 25129
- Mufradāt · row 604
رِيعٌ
A Christian cloister or cell.
A specialized architectural use, synonymous with صَوْمَعَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 25129
رِيعٌ
A pigeon-turret or pigeon tower.
A specialized architectural use for a structure housing pigeons.
- Lane · entry 25129
رِيعَةٌ
A gathered company or number of men.
The term applies specifically to men who have drawn or collected themselves together.
- Lane · entry 25132
رَيْعَانَةٌ
A she-camel abounding in milk.
A specialized epithet for a camel with plentiful milk.
- Lane · entry 25134
رَائِعٌ
Fleet, swift, and excellent.
Attested as an epithet of a horse.
- Lane · entry 25135
تَرِيعٌ
A register recording the increase or revenue of districts.
A post-classical administrative term referring to land revenue records.
- Lane · entry 25136
مَرِيعَةٌ
Fertile, fruitful, or abundant in herbage.
Used of land that has much growth or yield.
- Lane · entry 25137
مِرْيَاعٌ
A she-camel that goes away to pasture and returns by herself, or is repeatedly ridden back and forth.
Describes recurrent departure and return or repeated journeys.
- Lane · entry 25139
مِرْيَاعٌ
A she-camel that quickly yields abundant milk or quickly becomes fat.
A figurative or specialized use describing rapid productive increase.
- Lane · entry 25139
مُتَرَيِّعٌ
Slippery or oily.
Used of a man who anoints himself with oils.
- Lane · entry 25140
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic expression has both an elevated-place interpretation and a reported road or mountain-pass interpretation; these are interpretations of the single QAC occurrence, not separate occurrences.