Quranic root
سنو
s · n · w
The supplied evidence centers on elevation, upward movement, and the projection or drawing of something: water is drawn or made to irrigate, light rises and shines, and elevation extends figuratively to rank.
The same semantic field links drawing water upward through a well, bright or rising light, physical ascent, and exalted condition. These root-level relationships should not be read as meanings of every individual Quranic form.
- Lane · entry 42447
- Lane · entry 42450
- Lane · entry 42463
- Mufradāt · row 728
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 20
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَنَا
sanā
- 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.
Bright, shining light or gleam; in the Quranic occurrence, the flash or glare of lightning.
Used of the conspicuous radiance or flash of light. The Quranic expression concerns lightning.
- Lane · entry 42447
- Lane · entry 42453
- Mufradāt · row 728
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:43word 35
“(the) flash”
سَنَة
sanah
- Part of speech
- Noun · year (including plural and temporal use)
- Quran occurrences
- 19 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.
A year: a recurring period of time measured by a solar or lunar cycle; plural سنين, “years.”
The form occurs in singular, plural, and temporal constructions. The evidence allows both solar and lunar reckoning without making either one obligatory in every occurrence.
- Lane · entry 42455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:47word 4
“years”
Quran 20:40word 26
“(some) years”
A year understood as a period of hardship, difficulty, or dearth, especially in contrast with عام.
This is a reported Quranic lexical nuance in the contrast between سنة and عام; it is not a restriction that applies to every occurrence of سنة.
- Lane · entry 42455
Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:14word 9
“year(s)”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:96سَنَةٍۢyear(s)
- 5:26سَنَةًۭ ۛyears
- 7:130بِٱلسِّنِينَwith years (of famine)
- 10:5ٱلسِّنِينَ(of) the years
- 12:42سِنِينَyears
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 33 Classical meanings
سَنَا
To water or irrigate land; of rain or a cloud, to supply land with water.
Also used of a camel, beast, or people engaged in drawing water from a well for irrigation.
- Lane · entry 42447
سَنَا
To rise or aspire to eminence; to become high or exalted in rank.
A figurative extension from upward movement or height.
- Lane · entry 42447
سَنَّى
To ascend or mount upon something; of a male animal, to mount a female for mating.
The sexual sense is a specific animal-mounting construction, not a general restriction on the verb.
- Lane · entry 42448
سَنَّى
To open or unlock; to make a matter or way easy.
Used of a knot, lock, door, affair, or course of action.
- Lane · entry 42448
سَانَى
To seek agreement or conciliation through gentleness; to treat someone with tact, soothing, or blandishment.
Includes consenting, harmonizing with another, and behaving well in social dealings.
- Lane · entry 42449
سَانَى
To hire or contract with someone by the year.
A contractual or employment arrangement measured annually.
- Lane · entry 42449
أَسْنَى
To raise, exalt, or elevate someone or something; to increase an amount or reward.
Includes raising a fire’s light and making a payment, prize, or remuneration larger.
- Lane · entry 42450
أَسْنَى
To make good or improve a protective covenant or grant of protection.
An idiomatic use applied to a person’s protective relationship or covenant.
- Lane · entry 42450
أَسْنَى
Of lightning, to send or cast its light into a house, tent, or chamber, onto the ground, or along the clouds.
The described occurrence is specifically nocturnal lightning illumination.
- Lane · entry 42450
أَسْنَى
Of a people, to remain in a place for a year, or until a year has passed over them.
Describes residence or duration measured by the passing of a year.
- Lane · entry 42450
أَسْنَتُوا
To be afflicted with drought or barrenness.
This is reported as an orthographically distinguished form from أَسْنَى, with the final radical represented by ت in this drought sense.
- Lane · entry 42450
تَسَنَّى
To ascend or rise.
Reported as a use of the verb for a person.
- Lane · entry 42451
تَسَنَّى
To open or become open.
Used of a lock or similar object.
- Lane · entry 42451
تَسَنَّى
To become facilitated, ready, or easy; to find ease in one’s affairs.
The verb may describe either the becoming easy of a matter or a person’s experiencing ease in affairs.
- Lane · entry 42451
تَسَنَّى
To seek to please, content, or satisfy someone.
A conventional interpersonal use involving effort to gain another’s satisfaction.
- Lane · entry 42451
تَسَنَّى
To remain or dwell with someone, or at someone’s abode, for a year or several years.
The duration may be understood as one year or, in another explanation, several years.
- Lane · entry 42451
تَسَنَّى
To become altered or lose freshness through the lapse of years.
The reported derivation is disputed; the meaning is preserved as an independently attested lexical use without assigning Lane’s historical Quran citation a modern verse location.
- Lane · entry 42451
اِسْتَنَى
To look at the light of a fire.
A specialized visual-response construction involving firelight.
- Lane · entry 42452
سَنًا
The senna plant, used medicinally and also as a collyrium.
A plant-name homonym, distinct from سَنَا meaning light.
- Lane · entry 42453
سَنَا
In an Abyssinian expression, to be or become good.
A dialectal or borrowed expression, distinct from the Arabic light and irrigation meanings.
- Lane · entry 42453
سَنٍ
Food or grain that has undergone the lapse of years and become aged.
An adjectival use applied to food or wheat.
- Lane · entry 42454
سَنَة
Drought, barrenness, or severe drought; of land, a drought-affected condition.
A tropicalized use of سنة, including its use as an epithet of land, distinct from the ordinary temporal meaning “year.”
- Lane · entry 42455
سَنْوَاء
A hard, rigorous, or distressing year; of land, affected by drought or barrenness.
An adjectival form describing severity or drought.
- Lane · entry 42456
سَنَاء
Brightness or light emitted by fire or lightning.
A verbal noun and lexical form distinct in shape from the Quranic noun سَنَا.
- Lane · entry 42457
سَنَاء
High or exalted rank or condition.
A substantivized use referring to status or condition.
- Lane · entry 42457
سَنِيّ
High or exalted in rank or condition.
An adjective applied to a person or to status.
- Lane · entry 42458
سِنَايَة
Wholly or entirely; in the idiom, to take something in its entirety.
Occurs in the idiomatic expression أخذَهُ بِسِنَايَتِهِ.
- Lane · entry 42460
سَانٍ
A person or camel that waters land or draws water.
An active-participial designation applied to either the human operator or the animal used in the work.
- Lane · entry 42462
سَانِيَة
A camel or other beast used to draw water from a well.
The animal may be male or female and may operate a drawing arrangement or water wheel.
- Lane · entry 42463
سَانِيَة
The large water-drawing bucket together with its gear or apparatus.
A metonymic equipment sense of the same lexical item.
- Lane · entry 42463
سَانِيَة
A cloud that waters the earth.
A figurative extension from the water-drawing or watering function.
- Lane · entry 42463
مُسَنَّاة
A dam, sluice-bearing structure, or wall built to hold back or regulate flowing water.
A constructed water-control work, including a structure with openings through which water is regulated.
- Lane · entry 42465
مَسْنَوِيَّة
A well with a long rope from which water is drawn using a سَانِيَة.
The well’s depth or rope arrangement makes animal-powered drawing necessary.
- Lane · entry 42466
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The plural and temporal non-nominal Quran occurrences of سِنِينَ are merged under the normalized singular headword سَنَة.
The reported سنة/عام hardship nuance is lexical rather than a condition on every occurrence of سنة.
The derivation and Quranic association reported for تَسَنَّى in the sense “become altered with age” are disputed; no modern verse location is assigned from that discussion.
Lane’s historical Quran citation for the سنة/عام discussion is not used as a modern location; Quran examples here use independently supplied QAC locations.