Quranic root
سهل
s · h · l
Softness and the absence of ruggedness: what is smooth, level, gentle, or easy rather than rough or difficult.
The concrete contrast between smooth or level ground and rugged ground extends to ease, facilitation, gentleness, leniency, and related derived physical uses.
- Maqāyīs · row 2515
- Lane · entry 42524
- Lane · entry 42532
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- 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.
سَهْلٌ
sahlun
- 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 smooth, level tract of land; a plain.
The Quranic occurrence is the plural construct سُهُولِهَا, “its plains,” referring to level tracts of land and contrasting with rugged terrain.
- Lane · entry 42532
- Mufradāt · row 734
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:74word 13
“its plains”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 7:74سُهُولِهَاits plains
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 29 Classical meanings
سَهُلَ
To become smooth, soft, plain, or level.
Said of a place or thing, in contrast with becoming rugged or hard.
- Lane · entry 42524
سَهُلَ
To become easy or facile.
Also used of speech that has smoothness or ease.
- Lane · entry 42524
سَهَّلَ
To make something smooth, soft, plain, or level.
A causative use applied to a place or other thing.
- Lane · entry 42525
سَهَّلَ
To make something easy or facilitate it; to lighten an affair.
With a way or channel, it can mean preparing a passage for water or other movement.
- Lane · entry 42525
أَهْلًا وَسَهْلًا
A welcoming formula expressing that the visitor has come among kin and to a smooth, easy place.
A conventional greeting and welcome expression.
- Lane · entry 42525
سَاهَلَهُ
To deal easily, gently, or leniently with someone.
It may also describe acting or affecting to act gently toward the other party.
- Lane · entry 42526
أَسْهَلَ
To descend to, betake oneself to, or settle in plain or level terrain.
Especially used of moving from rugged ground to a plain and abiding there.
- Lane · entry 42527
أَسْهَلَ
To use ease or gentleness in dealing with people.
Opposed to dealing with people harshly or roughly.
- Lane · entry 42527
أَسْهَلَ
To find a thing or place smooth, soft, plain, or level.
A transitive use applied to a place, object, or similar thing.
- Lane · entry 42527
أَسْهَلَ
Of medicine, to relax or loosen the bowels; to attenuate a bodily humour.
The passive construction describes a person or belly whose bowels have been relaxed.
- Lane · entry 42527
أَسْهَلَ بِهَا
Of a woman, to bring forth a fetus or offspring prematurely.
A specialized obstetrical construction.
- Lane · entry 42527
تَسَهَّلَ
To become easy or facilitated, or to experience ease in one's affairs.
Said of an affair or its means of accomplishment; also of a person who finds ease in his affairs.
- Lane · entry 42528
تَسَاهَلَ، تَسَاهُلٌ
To act easily, gently, or leniently toward one another.
A reciprocal use, synonymous with mutual tolerance or leniency.
- Lane · entry 42529
تَسَاهَلَ، تَسَاهُلٌ
To be negligent or careless in an affair.
Recorded as a later or contemporary usage.
- Lane · entry 42529
تَسَاهُلٌ
In language and lexicology, a tolerated looseness or laxity of expression.
It may involve an expression acceptable only in a figurative sense, or mentioning the whole while intending a part.
- Lane · entry 42529
اِسْتَهَلَ
To take for oneself an easy place or position of abode.
Attested in the expression meaning that one who lies takes an easy place of abode for himself in Hell.
- Lane · entry 42530
اِسْتَسْهَلَ
To reckon or deem something easy or facile.
A transitive evaluative use.
- Lane · entry 42531
سَهْلٌ
Smooth, soft, plain, or level; not rough or rugged.
Used adjectivally of things or terrain and, substantivized, of what has these qualities.
- Lane · entry 42532
سَهْلٌ
Easy or facile; readily manageable.
Of a person's disposition, it can mean easy in character or easy to lead; of speech, easy in expression.
- Lane · entry 42532
سَهْلُ الوَجْهِ، سَهْلُ الخَدَّيْنِ
In descriptions of the face or cheeks, having the facial form specified by the expression: little flesh in the face, or expanded cheeks not raised in their balls.
A specialized descriptive use in expressions concerning facial appearance.
- Lane · entry 42532
سَهْلٌ
A crow or raven.
A distinct lexical use from the adjective and terrain noun.
- Lane · entry 42532
سَهِلٌ
Of a river or land, containing or abounding in coarse sand.
Used with a river or tract of land having سِهْلَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 42533
سِهْلَةٌ
Sea-sand or other coarse, non-fine sand; also sand-like earth brought by water or found in a watercourse.
The term can also be applied to gravel-like coarse material issuing from the bladder.
- Lane · entry 42534
سُهْلِيٌّ
Relating to plain terrain, or growing or pasturing in it.
A relational adjective derived from سَهْلٌ or أرض سهلة.
- Lane · entry 42535
سَهُولٌ
A laxative medicine.
A medicine used to loosen or relax the bowels.
- Lane · entry 42536
سُهَيْلٌ
Canopus, a well-known star.
The name is also used in traditional astronomical naming of related stars or star groups.
- Lane · entry 42537
أَكْذَبُ مِنْ سُهَيْلَةَ
A proverbial comparison meaning “more lying than the wind,” or referring to a certain liar named Suhaylah.
A fixed proverbial expression.
- Lane · entry 42538
مُسْهَلٌ
Relaxed or loosened by medicine, especially said of the belly.
The attested form is مُسْهَلٌ; the alternative مَسْهُولٌ is not accepted without explicit authority.
- Lane · entry 42539
مُسْهِلٌ
A laxative or attenuant medicine.
A medicine that loosens the bowels or attenuates bodily matter.
- Lane · entry 42540
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrence is the plural construct سُهُولِهَا, while the public headword is normalized to the singular citation form سَهْلٌ.
سَهْلٌ also has a distinct Classical Arabic lexical use meaning “crow,” which is kept separate from the terrain adjective and noun.