Quranic root
خطب
kh · ṭ · b
The root has two principal semantic branches: exchange of speech between people, and the contrast or mixture of colors. From speech arise address, discourse, sermon, marriage proposal, and the affair that is a subject of discussion.
The speech branch extends from mutual verbal exchange to addressing someone, formal discourse, and seeking marriage through a proposal. The sense of an affair is connected with matters that prompt discussion or response. A separate branch denotes variegated or dusky coloration.
- Maqāyīs · row 1609
- Mufradāt · row 419
- 4
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 12
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَاطَبَ
khāṭaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form III
- Form
- III
- 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.
To address, speak to, or converse with someone directly.
A transitive speech verb; the Quranic occurrences involve direct address to a person or group.
- Lane · entry 19498
- Mufradāt · row 419
Selected Quran examples
Quran 11:37word 6
“address Me”
Quran 25:63word 9
“address them”
خَطْبٌ
khaṭbun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- 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.
The matter, affair, or undertaking at issue.
Used for the matter about which an explanation is sought or which occupies the speaker; Quranic contexts use it in questions about a person's or group's affair.
- Lane · entry 19502
- Mufradāt · row 419
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:51word 3
“(was) your affair”
Quran 28:23word 18
“(is the) matter with both of you”
Quran 51:31word 3
“(is) your mission”
خِطَابٌ
khiṭābun
- 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.
Speech, discourse, or an address directed to another.
Denotes verbal address or discourse; the Quran uses it both for speech itself and for addressing someone.
- Lane · entry 19498
- Mufradāt · row 419
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:23word 15
“[the] speech”
Quran 78:37word 10
“(to) address”
Decisive discourse or judgment that settles a case and distinguishes truth from falsehood.
A Quran-attested interpretation of the fixed expression فَصْلُ الْخِطَابِ; the expression is explained as deciding a case, discerning truth from falsehood, or delivering a conclusive formula such as أَمَّا بَعْدُ.
- Lane · entry 19498
- Mufradāt · row 419
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:20word 6
“speech”
خِطْبَةٌ
khiṭbahun
- 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 act of asking a woman in marriage; a marriage proposal.
Denotes seeking marriage or the proposal associated with that act; it is the noun used in the Quranic expression خِطْبَةِ النِّسَاءِ.
- Lane · entry 19496
- Lane · entry 19506
- Mufradāt · row 419
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:235word 8
“marriage proposal”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:235خِطْبَةِmarriage proposal
- 11:37تُخَـٰطِبْنِىaddress Me
- 12:51خَطْبُكُنَّ(was) your affair
- 15:57خَطْبُكُمْ(is) your business
- 20:95خَطْبُكَ(is) your case
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 22 Classical meanings
خُطْبَةٌ
A sermon, exhortation, public speech, or self-contained discourse or oration.
Especially a discourse recited publicly by a خَطِيب, including a pulpit sermon; it may also denote a complete short treatise or discourse.
- Lane · entry 19496
- Lane · entry 19505
خَطَبَ
To seek or desire to do a thing.
An extended usage in which the desired action or undertaking is expressed as the object.
- Lane · entry 19496
خَطِيبٌ
A public speaker, orator, preacher, or reciter of a sermon; a speaker for a people or group.
The related verb may describe becoming such a speaker.
- Lane · entry 19496
- Lane · entry 19510
خَطَّبَ
To grant a man's request for a woman in marriage or give a woman in marriage to him.
A Form II marriage-related causative or transitive use.
- Lane · entry 19497
خِطَابٌ
A particle of allocution or grammatical address.
A grammatical-terminological use, as in the addressing elements of pronouns and demonstratives.
- Lane · entry 19498
خَاطَبَ
To consult or confer with someone.
A reported extension of the Form III speech relation.
- Lane · entry 19498
أَخْطَبَ
To invite or induce someone for the purpose of marriage.
Reported as a Form IV usage by one authority, though the lexical entry questions whether this meaning properly belongs to Form IV rather than Form VIII.
- Lane · entry 19499
أَخْطَبَ
To become within one's power, reach, or proximity.
Used of game, an object of pursuit, or an affair that has come within someone's reach.
- Lane · entry 19499
تَخَاطَبَ
To converse, speak, or hold a dialogue with one another.
A reciprocal Form VI use; it also underlies the expression for the conventional language of conversation.
- Lane · entry 19500
اِخْتَطَبَ
To invite a man to marry a woman of one's family, or to invite him to seek her in marriage.
A Form VIII marriage-related use.
- Lane · entry 19501
خَطْبٌ
A great or grievous affair, a calamity or affliction, the cause or occasion of an event, or a state or condition.
These are broader Classical extensions of the affair noun beyond the Quranic matter-at-issue use; the word may also denote a sought or desired undertaking.
- Lane · entry 19502
خِطْبٌ
A man who asks or demands a woman in marriage; a marriage suitor.
The feminine and related forms may designate the person sought in marriage; intensified forms are also used for a frequent suitor.
- Lane · entry 19504
خِطْبٌ
A woman who is asked or demanded in marriage.
A feminine participant meaning distinct from the male suitor sense.
- Lane · entry 19504
خُطْبَةٌ / أَخْطَبُ / خُطْبَانِيٌّ
A turbid, dusky, or variegated coloration combining tones such as yellowish red, green, black, or ash.
Applied to animals, plants, dyed body parts, hair, lips, and other things; خُطْبَانِيٌّ intensifies the dusky coloration. The related verb may mean to become striped or colored.
- Lane · entry 19496
- Lane · entry 19499
- Lane · entry 19505
- Lane · entry 19509
- Lane · entry 19517
خُطْبَةٌ
In the expression أَنْتَ الْبَيِّنُ الْخُطْبَةِ, bearing clear signs of asinineness.
A fixed idiomatic interpretation, not the ordinary meaning of sermon or discourse.
- Lane · entry 19505
خُطْبَانٌ
A particular very bitter herb resembling asparagus.
A plant name; it is also used in a comparison for extreme bitterness.
- Lane · entry 19507
خِطَابَةٌ
The office or function of a mosque preacher.
A specialized institutional noun derived from the preaching and sermon branch.
- Lane · entry 19511
خَطَّابٌ
A man practiced in or accustomed to asking women in marriage.
An intensive or habitual designation related to the marriage-suitor branch.
- Lane · entry 19512
أَخْطَبُ
A bird called the أخطب, identified in different reports with a roller or a shrike.
The name is associated with the mixture of black and white in the bird's coloring.
- Lane · entry 19517
أَخْطَبُ
A hawk or falcon.
A separate animal-name use of the adjective or noun.
- Lane · entry 19517
أَخْطَبُ
A green, six-legged creeping creature longer than a locust.
A zoological name recorded for a particular small creature.
- Lane · entry 19517
أَخْطَبَانُ
A particular bird, named for the green coloration in its wings.
A proper bird name derived from the color branch.
- Lane · entry 19518
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The root contains a separate Classical color branch alongside the speech, marriage, and affair branches; the color meanings are not Quranic form senses in this packet.
The Form IV marriage-invitation meaning is retained as a qualified Classical report because the same Lane entry questions whether it belongs to Form IV rather than Form VIII.
The bird identification for أَخْطَبُ varies between roller and shrike in the supplied evidence.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The attribution of the marriage-invitation meaning to Form IV أَخْطَبَ is uncertain in the supplied Lane passage; it is represented with that qualification rather than silently omitted.