Quranic root
خطأ
kh · ṭ · ʾ
The root centers on deviation from the right or intended course, extending to error, fault, sin, and the person or act characterized by wrongdoing.
The supplied lexical discussion distinguishes an unintended failure in carrying out a sound intention from deliberate pursuit of what is wrong, while also recognizing overlap among the derived nouns for error, fault, and sin.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- 6
- Quran-attested forms
- 7
- Quran senses
- 22
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
أَخْطَأَ
ʾakhṭaʾa
- 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 err or make a mistake by producing an outcome different from what was intended.
Describes a sound or appropriate intention followed by an erroneous result; the Quranic occurrences use the perfect Form IV verb in first- and second-person forms.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- Lane · entry 19479
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:286word 19
“we err”
Quran 33:5word 19
“you made a mistake”
خَاطِئَةٌ
khāṭiʾahun
- Part of speech
- Active participle · feminine; also substantivized 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.
Sinful or engaged in culpable wrongdoing.
Feminine active-participial or adjectival use; the Quranic adjective describes something characterized by deliberate or culpable wrong.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- Lane · entry 19492
Selected Quran examples
Quran 96:16word 3
“sinful”
A sin or great act of wrongdoing.
Substantivized feminine use, as in the expression describing the overturned communities as having been destroyed for a great sin.
- Mufradāt · row 418
Selected Quran examples
Quran 69:9word 6
“with sin”
خَطَأٌ
khaṭaʾun
- Part of speech
- 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.
A mistake, error, or unintended fault or offense.
In the Quranic construction concerning the killing of a believer, it denotes an unintended act, contrasted with what the heart deliberately intends.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- Lane · entry 19487
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:92word 8
“(by) mistake”
Quran 4:92word 12
“(by) mistake”
خَطِيئَةٌ
khaṭīʾahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 10 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 sin, fault, offense, or act of disobedience.
The Quran uses the singular and the plurals خَطَايَا and خَطِيئَات for sins and faults. The term often concerns a harmful result arising from an intended act without that result itself being intended, but it can also denote culpable wrongdoing more generally.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- Lane · entry 19490
Selected Quran examples
خَاطِئٌ
khāṭiʾun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
One who commits culpable wrongdoing or sin; a sinner or wrongdoer.
Active-participial use; the Quranic plural refers to people characterized by deliberate or culpable wrongdoing.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- Lane · entry 19492
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:91word 9
“sinners”
Quran 69:37word 4
“the sinners”
خِطْءٌ
khiṭʾun
- 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.
A sin, crime, or act of disobedience deserving punishment.
The Quranic occurrence uses the noun in an emphatic description of a grave sinful act.
- Mufradāt · row 418
- Lane · entry 19490
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:31word 12
“a sin”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:58خَطَـٰيَـٰكُمْ ۚyour sins
- 2:81خَطِيٓـَٔتُهُۥhis sins
- 2:286أَخْطَأْنَا ۚwe err
- 4:92خَطَـًۭٔا ۚ(by) mistake
- 4:92خَطَـًۭٔا(by) mistake
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 19 Classical meanings
خَطِئَ
To do wrong, commit a fault or offense, or commit a sin or act of disobedience.
Classical usage distinguishes this verb from أَخْطَأَ by associating it especially with deliberate wrongdoing, particularly in religious matters, though authorities also report wider or overlapping use.
- Lane · entry 19479
خَطَأَتِ القِدْرُ
Of a cooking pot: to throw up froth, foam, or scum while boiling.
A tropical or figurative lexical use applied specifically to a boiling pot.
- Lane · entry 19479
خَطَّأَ
To tell someone that he has done wrong, or to declare or judge him to be mistaken.
Form II causative use, including correcting or accusing another person of error.
- Lane · entry 19480
خَطَّأَ
To cause something to miss, pass over, or fail to reach its mark.
Used of an arrow or of a star or asterism whose expected rain fails to reach a land.
- Lane · entry 19480
أَخْطَأَ
To miss a target, fail to hit or reach something, or miss the way.
Also used when the right or due has become out of reach; this is a classical Form IV branch distinct from merely making an erroneous decision or action.
- Lane · entry 19481
مَا أَخْطَأَهُ
An exclamatory expression meaning how sinful, criminal, or intentionally wrong he is.
This fixed expression is explicitly related to خَطِئَ rather than to the ordinary Form IV meaning of أَخْطَأَ.
- Lane · entry 19481
تَخَطَّأَ
To address someone with the aim of causing him to make a mistake.
A Form V causative or manipulative construction; the same entry also records a general equivalence with أَخْطَأَ.
- Lane · entry 19482
تَخَطَّؤٌ
Feigning a wrong action, mistake, or error.
Verbal-noun use describing simulated rather than genuine wrongdoing.
- Lane · entry 19482
تَخَطَّؤٌ
Charging another person with a wrong action, mistake, or error.
A distinct verbal-noun use involving attribution of wrongdoing to another.
- Lane · entry 19482
تَخَاطَأَ
To impute to oneself a wrong action, mistake, or error that one did not commit.
The construction expresses falsely or mistakenly taking an error upon oneself.
- Lane · entry 19483
اِسْتَخْطَأَ
Of a she-camel: to fail to conceive or become pregnant.
A specialized zoological use of Form X.
- Lane · entry 19484
خَطْأَةٌ
A tract of land missed by rain while nearby land receives it.
A specialized geographical or meteorological noun.
- Lane · entry 19488
خَطِيئَةٌ يَوْمٌ
In the expression خَطِيئَةٌ يَوْمٌ or خَطِيئَةٌ لَيْلَةٌ, a rare or exceptional occurrence.
An idiomatic temporal expression, not the ordinary noun meaning sin or fault.
- Lane · entry 19490
خَطِيئَةٌ
A small quantity or small number of something.
Classical usage includes a few fresh dates or a small number of wild animals outside their accustomed places.
- Lane · entry 19490
خَاطِئٌ
A person who constantly persists in faults, sins, offenses, or acts of disobedience.
A stronger habitual-persistence specialization of the active participle.
- Lane · entry 19491
خَاطِئَةٌ
One or something that misses the mark or butt.
The plural خَوَاطِئُ occurs in a proverb applied to one who often errs but sometimes succeeds, and figuratively to a miser who occasionally gives.
- Lane · entry 19492
مُخْطِئٌ
One who does wrong while intending to do right.
Active participle of Form IV, emphasizing the contrast between sound intention and erroneous result.
- Lane · entry 19494
مَتَخَطٍّ
A hardy, strong she-camel that steps over carcasses and continues after other animals have fallen.
A specialized description of an animal able to leave fallen animals behind on the road.
- Lane · entry 19495
مُسْتَخْطِئَةٌ
Of a she-camel: not conceiving or not becoming pregnant during a year or longer.
A specialized active-participial form related to the Form X conception use.
- Lane · entry 19495
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Classical sources report overlap and disagreement about whether particular error nouns imply intention; the principal Quranic distinction is preserved as a usage nuance rather than treated as absolute in every occurrence.
No Maqāyīs entry was supplied for this root; the root-level orientation therefore relies on the supplied Quran-focused lexical discussion.