Quranic root
سير
s · y · r
The root centers on moving onward, passing along, and flowing.
From movement and progression it extends to a way or mode of proceeding, a state or condition, and causative movement. The sense of a thong or stripe is explained through extension and stripe-like form.
- Maqāyīs · row 2536
- Mufradāt · row 643
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 27
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
سَارَ
sāra
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 16 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 go, move along, travel, proceed, or depart.
Used of persons and other moving subjects. With بِـ, it can mean to travel or proceed with someone; Quranic usage includes ordinary travel and movement away.
- Lane · entry 42889
- Mufradāt · row 643
Selected Quran examples
سَيَّرَ
sayyara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 5 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 cause someone or something to go or move; to set in motion, convey, or move away.
The Quranic use includes deliberate enabling of travel as well as movement imposed by command, force, or subjugation; passive forms describe things caused to move.
- Lane · entry 42890
- Mufradāt · row 643
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:22word 3
“enables you to travel”
Quran 78:20word 1
“And are moved”
Quran 18:47word 2
“We will cause (to) move”
سَيْرٌ
sayrun
- Part of speech
- Verbal noun
- Quran occurrences
- 2 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.
Going, journeying, movement, or progress.
A verbal noun referring to the act or course of moving or traveling; Quranic contexts include a journey and a forceful movement.
- Lane · entry 42897
- Mufradāt · row 643
Selected Quran examples
Quran 34:18word 12
“the journey”
Quran 52:10word 3
“(with an awful) movement”
سَيَّارَةٌ
sayyārahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 3 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 traveling company, caravan, or group of travelers.
In Quranic usage it denotes a group on the road, not a modern motor vehicle.
- Lane · entry 42903
- Mufradāt · row 643
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:19word 2
“a caravan”
Quran 5:96word 8
“and for the travelers”
Quran 12:10word 13
“[the] caravan”
سِيرَةٌ
sīrahun
- 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.
The state, condition, or form in which something is; its former or original state.
In the Quranic occurrence, the expression refers to the object's previous condition, rather than to a way of conduct or a biographical narrative.
- Lane · entry 42899
- Mufradāt · row 643
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:21word 6
“(to) its state”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 3:137فَسِيرُوا۟then travel
- 5:96وَلِلسَّيَّارَةِ ۖand for the travelers
- 6:11سِيرُوا۟Travel
- 10:22يُسَيِّرُكُمْenables you to travel
- 12:10ٱلسَّيَّارَةِ[the] caravan
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 41 Classical meanings
سَارَ
To sail or move along, said specifically of a ship.
A tropical extension of ordinary going or proceeding.
- Lane · entry 42889
سَارَ
To pursue or follow a way, course, or manner of conduct.
Used in expressions describing good or bad conduct or a way of acting.
- Lane · entry 42889
سَارَ
To become current or customary among people; to cause a saying or practice to become usual.
Used of proverbs, sayings, ways, or practices that circulate or are established socially.
- Lane · entry 42889
سَارَ
To make someone or something go, proceed, or depart.
A transitive Classical use synonymous with سَيَّرَ and distinct from the ordinary intransitive Quranic use.
- Lane · entry 42889
سَيَّرَ
To remove a covering or horsecloth from an animal.
A tropical use applied to taking a cloth or covering off a horse or other beast.
- Lane · entry 42890
سَيَّرَ
To make a proverb or saying current; to publish it among people.
A causative social extension of movement or circulation.
- Lane · entry 42890
سَيَّرَ
To relate stories of the ancients.
A conventional narrative use.
- Lane · entry 42890
سَيَّرَ
To mark or make stripes upon cloth, a garment, an arrow, or a dye pattern.
The stripes are conceived as thong-like bands.
- Lane · entry 42890
سَايَرَ
To go with someone, keep pace with him, or run alongside him.
Form III expresses accompanying or matching another's rate of movement.
- Lane · entry 42891
سَايَرَ
To vie, contend, or compete with someone in going or running, and by extension in an affair.
A figurative extension from competing in movement.
- Lane · entry 42891
تَسَيَّرَ
To peel or strip off and become like thongs.
Said of a man's skin when it peels into strip-like forms.
- Lane · entry 42893
تَسَايَرَ
To go at an equal rate, keep pace, or run together.
Used reciprocally of two parties moving in coordination.
- Lane · entry 42894
تَسَايَرَ
To have assertions or statements agree with one another.
An idiomatic figurative use based on two things running together consistently.
- Lane · entry 42894
تَسَايَرَ
To vie, contend, or compete with one another, in movement or more generally.
A reciprocal extension of keeping pace.
- Lane · entry 42894
تَسَايَرَ
To depart or disappear gradually, said of anger.
An idiomatic use describing anger leaving the face by degrees.
- Lane · entry 42894
اِسْتَارَ
To pursue one's way, course, mode, or conduct.
A derived use referring to following a chosen manner of acting.
- Lane · entry 42895
اِسْتَارَ
To procure wheat or other provisions from a place for storage.
The object is provision obtained for subsistence and laid up in store.
- Lane · entry 42895
سَيْرٌ
A thong, strap, or strip of skin or leather.
This is a concrete nominal distinct from the verbal noun of going; its plural forms include سُيُورٌ and أَسْيَارٌ.
- Lane · entry 42897
سِيرَةٌ
A mode or manner of going or proceeding.
A nominal extension of movement, distinct from the Quranic sense of state or condition.
- Lane · entry 42899
سِيرَةٌ
A way, course, rule, or manner of conduct or life.
Equivalent in Classical usage to a person's or ruler's established method of acting.
- Lane · entry 42899
سِيرَةٌ
The record of a person's actions and pious works.
An understood record or written account is associated with the term.
- Lane · entry 42899
سِيرَةٌ
Stories or accounts of the ancients.
A narrative use, including accounts referred to as the stories of earlier peoples.
- Lane · entry 42899
سِيرَةٌ
The mention of a person or thing, or a matter under discussion.
A later figurative or discursive use.
- Lane · entry 42899
سِيَرٌ
Military expeditions, their memorable actions, or their affairs.
A technical legal and historical plural use, as in works on military expeditions.
- Lane · entry 42899
سِيرَةٌ
Wheat or other provisions brought from a place to be stored.
A specialized nominal use concerning provisions for subsistence.
- Lane · entry 42899
سُيَرَةٌ
One who goes or journeys much; a great goer.
Also used as an epithet for a hackney or an ass.
- Lane · entry 42900
سِيَرَاءُ
A striped garment or cloth, especially a striped or silk-mixed textile.
The name is associated with stripe-like bands or thongs; descriptions vary as to the precise textile.
- Lane · entry 42901
سِيَرَاءُ
The diaphragm or midriff.
A figurative anatomical use.
- Lane · entry 42901
سِيَرَاءُ
The peel or pellicle adhering to a date stone.
A specialized botanical use.
- Lane · entry 42901
سِيَرَاءُ
A palm branch stripped of its leaves.
A concrete botanical use.
- Lane · entry 42901
سِيَرَاءُ
Gold, especially clear or pure gold.
A specialized nominal use reported in Classical lexicography.
- Lane · entry 42901
سِيَرَاءُ
A certain plant resembling the خُلَّة.
A rare botanical designation.
- Lane · entry 42901
السَّيَّارَةُ
The five visible planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
A figurative astronomical plural usage distinct from the Quranic traveling company.
- Lane · entry 42903
سَائِرٌ
A proverb or saying that is current or commonly known.
A figurative participial use derived from circulation among people.
- Lane · entry 42904
سَائِرٌ
The rest or remainder of a thing; according to some usage, the whole or all of a thing or people.
The lexical evidence records both interpretations; the remainder sense is the primary reported one here.
- Lane · entry 42904
مَسِيرٌ
A place or time of going or journeying.
A derived nominal use of مَسِيرٌ beyond its basic verbal-noun function.
- Lane · entry 42906
مَسِيرٌ
Travelled or traversed, as of a road; made to go or journey, as of a person.
A passive-participial use with forms such as a travelled road or a person made to journey.
- Lane · entry 42906
مَسِيرَةٌ
A distance or journey measured by the time required to traverse it.
Used in expressions such as a day's or month's journey.
- Lane · entry 42907
مُسَيَّرٌ
Striped or patterned with stripe-like bands; a striped garment, cloth, or eagle.
The textile use commonly concerns silk or silk-mixed cloth; the same descriptive formation is applied to a striped eagle.
- Lane · entry 42908
مُسَيَّرٌ
A particular well-known sweetmeat.
A specialized lexicalized noun.
- Lane · entry 42908
مُسْتَارٌ
A place from which wheat or other provisions are procured for subsistence and storage.
One reported interpretation derives it from اِسْتَارَ; another interprets the cited form as referring to the journey itself.
- Lane · entry 42909
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
سَيَّارَةٌ in the Quranic and Classical evidence means a traveling company or caravan, not the modern noun for an automobile.
سِيرَةٌ has several Classical branches, including conduct and narrative uses; its Quranic occurrence here is specifically the sense of state or condition.
The entry for مُسْتَارٌ preserves a reported lexical alternative between a provision-procuring place and a journey.