Quranic root
وصف
w · ṣ · f
The root centers on furnishing a thing with its qualities, making its attributes available for recognition or statement.
This core yields الوصف for describing or attributing qualities, الصفة for a quality or attribute, and اتصف for being characterized by a quality. The lexical family also preserves specialized usages for attaining fitness for service and, in an intransitive camel construction, traveling well.
- Maqāyīs · row 5130
- Mufradāt · row 1584
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 14
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
وَصَفَ
waṣafa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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 describe or characterize something by stating its qualities or attributes.
A verbal account of what a thing is like; the description may be true or false.
- Mufradāt · row 1584
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:18word 18
“you describe”
To attribute or ascribe a quality, characterization, or claim to someone or something.
Used when a description is assigned to an entity, including polemical claims about God or other beings; the attributed claim may be false.
- Mufradāt · row 1584
Selected Quran examples
وَصْفٌ
waṣfun
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Description or attribution: the stated qualities, characterization, or claim assigned to something.
A verbal noun for describing or ascribing; in the Quranic occurrence it refers to an attribution or claim.
- Mufradāt · row 1584
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:139word 19
“(for) their attribution”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 6:100يَصِفُونَthey attribute
- 6:139وَصْفَهُمْ ۚ(for) their attribution
- 12:18تَصِفُونَyou describe
- 12:77تَصِفُونَyou describe
- 16:62وَتَصِفُand assert
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 7 Classical meanings
وَصُفَ
To attain the proper age for service.
A specialized intransitive Form I usage.
- Lane · entry 30533
أَوْصَفَ
To become of full stature and fit for service.
Recorded of a boy and, in the corresponding feminine usage, of a girl.
- Lane · entry 30534
- Mufradāt · row 1584
اِتَّصَفَ
To be or become characterized by a quality; to characterize oneself by it.
Typically construed with بِ; it is also said of a thing that, in an observer’s view, admits or appears capable of description.
- Lane · entry 30535
- Mufradāt · row 1584
صِفَةٌ
A quality, attribute, property, or description; collectively, the qualities or state of a thing.
Can denote the condition or case of a thing as well as its descriptive or defining attributes.
- Lane · entry 30537
صِفَةٌ
In grammatical terminology, an attributive word or epithet (نَعْتٌ).
The category includes a word denoting an attribute together with a substantive, including active and passive participles, the صفة مشبهة, and the elative. It also includes simple and substantive-dominant epithets; older usage extends the term to an adverbial noun of place or time and to a preposition.
- Lane · entry 30537
وَصَفَ البَعِيرُ
Of a camel, to travel well or make good progress.
Used in the intransitive expression وَصَفَ البَعِيرُ وُصُوفًا.
- Mufradāt · row 1584
وَصِيفٌ، وَصِيفَةٌ
A male servant; a female servant.
وَصِيفٌ denotes the male servant and وَصِيفَةٌ the female servant.
- Mufradāt · row 1584
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic verb group is attested only in active imperfect forms, but its public headword is normalized to the perfect citation form وَصَفَ.
The Quranic nominal occurrence is the inflected form وَصْفَهُمْ and is presented under the citation form وَصْفٌ.