Quranic root
وعي
w · ʿ · y
The root centers on bringing something together and holding it as a whole, whether knowledge retained in awareness or goods enclosed in a receptacle.
The core notion develops into mental retention and understanding, physical storing and containment, and several peripheral bodily, idiomatic, and vocal uses. The noise-related use is etymologically treated in one analysis as a substitutional form with an original غ.
- Maqāyīs · row 5162
- Mufradāt · row 1593
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 7
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
وَعَى
waʿā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- 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 take something into the mind, understand it, and retain it in conscious awareness.
In the Quranic occurrence, an ear receives and retains a message or admonition; the sense concerns mental reception and retention, not physical containment.
- Lane · entry 30588
- Mufradāt · row 1593
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:12word 4
“and would be conscious of it”
أَوْعَى
ʾawʿā
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form IV
- Form
- IV
- 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.
To gather and store or hoard something, enclosing what has been collected.
The Quranic use describes gathering possessions and storing them; the related context of keeping something within oneself is an extension of the same containment-and-retention construction.
- Mufradāt · row 1593
Selected Quran examples
Quran 70:18word 2
“and hoarded”
Quran 84:23word 4
“they keep within themselves”
وَاعِيَة
wāʿiyah
- Part of speech
- Active participle · feminine
- 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.
Receptive and retaining what is heard; possessing conscious understanding.
In the Quranic phrase, the feminine active participle describes an ear that takes in and retains admonition or a message.
- Mufradāt · row 1593
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:12word 6
“conscious”
وِعَاء
wiʿāʾ
- 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 bag, wallet, receptacle, or vessel for provisions, goods, utensils, or similar contents.
The Quranic occurrences refer to the bags or containers associated with the brothers’ goods in the account of Joseph.
- Lane · entry 30590
- Mufradāt · row 1593
Selected Quran examples
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 12:76بِأَوْعِيَتِهِمْwith their bags
- 12:76وِعَآءِ(the) bag
- 12:76وِعَآءِ(the) bag
- 69:12وَتَعِيَهَآand would be conscious of it
- 69:12وَٰعِيَةٌۭconscious
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 8 Classical meanings
وَعَى
To heed or pay attention to something.
A Classical Form I use emphasizing attentiveness rather than the Quran-attested result of retaining something in conscious understanding.
- Lane · entry 30588
أَوْعَى
To cause someone to retain a report in memory, know it, or learn it by heart.
A causative construction with a person as the object and a report or similar discourse as what is retained.
- Lane · entry 30589
وِعَاء
The pericardium, understood as the covering or receptacle of the heart.
An anatomical use of the noun, distinct from its ordinary meaning of a bag or vessel.
- Lane · entry 30590
وِعَاء
The inner contents of the heart; figuratively, what a person keeps within the heart.
Used in the idiomatic expression for showing someone what is in one’s heart.
- Lane · entry 30590
وَعْي
Restraint from, or the ability to do without or escape, something.
Used in the idiom لا وَعْيَ عن كذا and related expressions conveying that one cannot hold oneself back from or avoid the matter.
- Mufradāt · row 1593
وَعَى
Of a wound, to collect pus; of a bone, to become firm and gather strength.
These are bodily uses describing the gathering of fluid or the consolidation of strength.
- Mufradāt · row 1593
وَاعِيَة
A female wailer or one who cries out.
This is a separate Classical use of the form from the Quranic active-participle sense ‘receptive and retaining.’
- Mufradāt · row 1593
وَعْي
The shouting, cries, or outcry of a people.
The lexical relation of this vocal use to the root is treated as etymologically uncertain in one analysis, which regards it as substitutional with an original غ.
- Mufradāt · row 1593
- Maqāyīs · row 5162
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
وَاعِيَة has two distinct attested uses: the Quranic feminine active participle meaning receptive or retaining, and a separate Classical noun meaning a female wailer.
The outcry-related وَعْي is lexically attested but its etymological assignment to this root is uncertain; one analysis treats it as substitutional with an original غ.