Quranic root
ثقل
th · q · l
The root centers on heaviness as the opposite of lightness, extending to physical weight, burden, preponderance, gravity, and significance.
Its basic physical sense develops into abstract heaviness and preponderance, burdens carried by people or the earth, moral burdens, and figurative gravity; derived forms express making heavy, being burdened, or hanging back under a weight.
- Maqāyīs · row 1032
- Mufradāt · row 205
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 13
- Quran senses
- 28
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
ثَقُلَ
thaqula
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 4 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 become heavy or weighty; to be preponderant.
In the weighing of deeds, it describes the good deeds becoming preponderant in the scales.
- Lane · entry 27380
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 101:6word 3
“(are) heavy”
To be momentous, formidable, or difficult to apprehend.
Used of the Hour in the expression ثَقُلَتْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ; the usage conveys its gravity or formidable character, with an associated interpretation of its being difficult to know or apprehend.
- Lane · entry 27380
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:187word 16
“It lays heavily”
أَثْقَلَ
ʾathqala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To become heavy with pregnancy; to become gravid.
Used of a pregnant female when the pregnancy becomes apparent or the burden in the womb becomes heavy.
- Lane · entry 27382
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:189word 20
“she grows heavy”
تَثَاقَلَ
tathāqala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VI
- Form
- VI
- 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.
To hang back heavily, become sluggish, or incline under a weight.
In the Quranic construction with إِلَى, it describes holding back from action and inclining toward the earth or the present worldly life.
- Lane · entry 27383
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:38word 13
“you cling heavily”
مِثْقَالٌ
mithqālun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
A weight or a quantity equal in weight; a measure used to express even a very small amount.
Used in constructions measuring something by its equivalent weight, including the weight of a tiny particle or mustard seed.
- Lane · entry 27402
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:47word 12
“weight”
Quran 99:7word 3
“(equal to the) weight”
مُثْقَلٌ
muthqalun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Burdened, heavily laden, or overburdened.
Used of one who bears a load or burden; the Quranic forms include a feminine singular and a masculine plural.
- Lane · entry 27398
Selected Quran examples
Quran 35:18word 8
“a heavily laden”
Quran 52:40word 7
“(are) overburdened”
Quran 68:46word 7
“(are) burdened”
ثَقِيلٌ
thaqīlun
- Part of speech
- Adjective · also substantivized
- 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.
Heavy, weighty, or ponderous.
Primarily physical or relative to another thing; it may also be substantivized in a phrase contrasting light and heavy loads or conditions.
- Lane · entry 27395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:57word 13
“heavy”
Weighty, grave, or momentous.
Used of an abstract matter or saying, especially a saying or matter whose seriousness or gravity is emphasized.
- Lane · entry 27395
Selected Quran examples
Quran 73:5word 5
“heavy”
In a light-and-heavy pair: in difficult, weighty, or less readily undertaken circumstances.
In خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا, it covers going forth whether readily or with difficulty and, by contextual interpretation, differing states such as being heavily equipped, ill, weak, old, or otherwise less ready; these are contextual applications of the contrast, not separate lexical meanings.
- Lane · entry 27395
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 9:41word 3
“or heavy”
ثِقْلٌ / ثَقَلَانِ
thiqlun / thaqalāni
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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 load, burden, or weight carried.
The plural أَثْقَال refers to loads or burdens borne in travel and similar contexts.
- Lane · entry 27385
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:7word 2
“your loads”
The burdens brought out by the earth, including buried treasures or the dead bodies it contains.
Used in أَثْقَالُ الأَرْضِ, whose Quranic interpretation includes the earth's buried treasures and the bodies committed to it.
- Lane · entry 27385
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 99:2word 3
“its burdens”
Sins or moral burdens, including the sins of those led astray by another.
Used of the burdens borne on account of one's own wrongdoing and, in the cited construction, additional burdens connected with misleading others.
- Lane · entry 27385
- Mufradāt · row 205
Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:13word 2
“their burdens”
The two weighty classes: humankind and the jinn.
The dual expression الثَّقَلَانِ is used for these two classes of rational creatures.
- Lane · entry 27386
Selected Quran examples
Quran 55:31word 4
“two classes”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:40مِثْقَالَ(as much as) weight
- 7:8ثَقُلَتْ(will be) heavy
- 7:57ثِقَالًۭاheavy
- 7:187ثَقُلَتْIt lays heavily
- 7:189أَثْقَلَتshe grows heavy
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
ثَقُلَ
To be burdensome, onerous, oppressive, afflictive, or difficult for someone; of food, to be difficult to digest.
Often construed with عَلَى when something weighs heavily on a person.
- Lane · entry 27380
ثَقُلَ / ثَقَّلَ
To be or make a word or sound heavy and not easy to utter or hear.
A conventional linguistic and phonetic use, opposed to making pronunciation light or easy.
- Lane · entry 27380
- Lane · entry 27381
ثَقُلَ / ثِقَلٌ
For hearing to become dull or partially impaired.
The expression فِي أُذُنِهِ ثِقَلٌ describes heaviness or dullness in the ear.
- Lane · entry 27380
- Lane · entry 27387
ثَقُلَ
To become heavy or debilitated through sickness or disease.
The usage describes the bodily effect of illness, including becoming heavy in sleep.
- Lane · entry 27380
ثَقُلَ
To become slow, sluggish, indolent, dull, torpid, or lacking alacrity.
May describe reluctance or slowness in receiving what is said or required.
- Lane · entry 27380
ثَقُلَ
Of the shoots of certain plants, to become luxuriant, succulent, or sappy.
Attested of the shoots of العرفج and الثمام.
- Lane · entry 27380
ثَقَلَ
To test the weight of something by lifting it.
The object is lifted by hand to determine whether it is heavy or light.
- Lane · entry 27380
ثَقَلَ
To surpass or outweigh another thing in weight.
Used in comparison of two things in weighing.
- Lane · entry 27380
ثَقَّلَ
To make someone or something heavy, whether physically or figuratively.
The causative is the opposite of making light and includes imposing heaviness or weight.
- Lane · entry 27381
أَثْقَلَ
To burden someone heavily or beyond their power; to overwhelm them with a burden.
The burden may be a load, debt, sickness, sleep, or meanness, which overcomes and weighs down the person.
- Lane · entry 27382
تَثَاقَلَ
To press heavily or bear one's weight upon a thing.
The construction may describe physical pressure or the act of putting one's weight on something.
- Lane · entry 27383
اِسْتَثْقَلَ
To deem someone or something heavy, burdensome, or unwelcome.
The form is the converse of deeming something light or easy.
- Lane · entry 27384
اُسْتُثْقِلَ
To be overcome and rendered heavy by sleep, sickness, or meanness.
This is a passive or resultative use of the judgment that something has become heavy.
- Lane · entry 27384
ثَقَلٌ
A traveller's belongings, household goods, baggage, apparatus, and accompanying household or retinue.
The term can denote the collection of things and people accompanying a person on a journey.
- Lane · entry 27386
ثَقَلٌ
The requisites, apparatus, instruments, or tools belonging to a person or craft.
Examples include a learned person's books and writing reeds and a craftsman's equipment.
- Lane · entry 27386
ثَقَلٌ
Something held in high estimation, much requested, and preserved with care.
The meaning is conventional in the expression for two valued objects or trusts.
- Lane · entry 27386
ثَقَلٌ
The eggs of an ostrich.
A specialized lexical usage explained by the pleasure and food they provide to whoever takes them.
- Lane · entry 27386
ثِقَلٌ
Heaviness, weightiness, ponderousness, gravity, or preponderance.
The noun is primarily used of corporeal objects and then extended to ideal or abstract objects.
- Lane · entry 27387
ثَقْلَةٌ
A fit of drowsiness or a heaviness and languor in the body.
It may describe heaviness in the chest or body after food and heaviness experienced at the heart.
- Lane · entry 27388
ثَقَالٌ
Of a woman, heavy or large in the hinder part; also heavy in an abstract sense.
The bodily description is a specialized lexical usage; the abstract extension is also attested.
- Lane · entry 27393
ثَقِيلٌ
Of a person, heavy through illness, or socially dull, sluggish, or unwelcome to companions; sometimes, in praise, grave and sedate.
The negative social sense is common, while the positive sense describes a grave, steady, or composed person.
- Lane · entry 27395
ثَقِيلٌ
Of a horse or camel, slow.
This is an application to an animal's pace rather than to its physical mass alone.
- Lane · entry 27395
ثَقِيلٌ / ثَاقِلٌ
To become heavy through sickness or disease.
The active participial form ثَاقِلٌ can describe one who has become heavy because of illness.
- Lane · entry 27395
- Lane · entry 27396
ثَاقِلٌ
A full-weight, non-deficient dinar.
A technical monetary description; its plural is ثَوَاقِلُ.
- Lane · entry 27396
مُثْقَلٌ
Weighed down or oppressed by sickness or debt.
This is a specialization of being burdened, attested independently for illness and financial obligation.
- Lane · entry 27398
مُثْقِلٌ
Of a woman, gravid, with the burden of pregnancy heavy or manifest.
The active participle describes the woman as carrying the pregnancy rather than the pregnancy's causative effect.
- Lane · entry 27399
مُثَقَّلٌ
Ill received, disapproved, or not made an object of love to hearts.
A figurative passive use describing social or emotional rejection.
- Lane · entry 27400
مُثَقَّلَةٌ
A marble stone or piece of marble used to weigh down a carpet.
A specialized object name derived from the function of making something heavy.
- Lane · entry 27401
مِثْقَالٌ
An object used for weighing, such as one of the weights of a balance.
This denotes the physical weighing implement rather than an amount measured by it.
- Lane · entry 27402
مِثْقَالٌ
A standardized unit of weight.
Classical accounts give variant specifications for the unit, including a known fraction or multiple of a dirham.
- Lane · entry 27402
مِثْقَالٌ
A gold coin or dinar.
A monetary use distinct from the general meaning of an amount equal in weight.
- Lane · entry 27402
مِثْقَالٌ
A person's weight or burden imposed upon another.
In the idiom أَلْقَى عَلَيْهِ مَثَاقِيلَهُ, it refers to the burden or support that one person places upon another.
- Lane · entry 27402
مُتَثَاقِلٌ
One who bears his weight upon a thing or presses heavily.
The derived participle can describe the manner of treading or applying pressure.
- Lane · entry 27403
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The QAC group v~aqalaAn combines the plural أَثْقَال with the distinct dual expression الثَّقَلَانِ; the public headword and usage conditions make both lexical identities explicit.
The alternatives attached to ثِقَالًا in the light-and-heavy construction are contextual interpretations of one contrast, not separate senses.
Some Lane Quran references use historical citation notation; the modern verse locations used here come only from the supplied QAC occurrence data.