Quranic root
خبر
kh · b · r
The root has two principal semantic orientations: knowledge of a thing, especially its real or hidden state, and softness, fertility, or abundance in land and related natural substances.
The knowledge branch yields awareness, information, informing, inquiry, and reports; the softness-and-abundance branch yields soft ground, lush or water-holding land, cultivation, herbage, and various extensions involving abundance. The lexical tradition also records several specialized branches that remain distinct from these principles.
- Maqāyīs · row 1503
- Mufradāt · row 385
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 52
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَبَر
khabar
- 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.
A report, piece of information, or news; in the plural, reports or the circumstances and affairs reported about.
Used for information conveyed about a person, people, or matter. The Quranic plural أخبار may refer broadly to people's reported circumstances or affairs, not only to a single verbal announcement.
- Lane · entry 18328
- Mufradāt · row 385
Selected Quran examples
خُبْر
khubr
- 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.
Knowledge or informed understanding of a matter, especially acquaintance with its real or internal state.
A noun of knowledge or experience; in Quranic usage it denotes knowledge gained or possessed concerning a matter, rather than a report as such.
- Lane · entry 18326
- Mufradāt · row 385
Selected Quran examples
Quran 18:68word 8
“any knowledge”
Quran 18:91word 6
“(of the) information”
خَبِير
khabīr
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 45 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.
Fully aware or knowing, particularly of the inner, real, or otherwise hidden qualities and circumstances of things.
The Quran frequently uses the adjective as a divine attribute; it can also describe one possessing informed knowledge of matters, reports, or realities.
- Lane · entry 18335
- Mufradāt · row 385
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:30word 13
“(is) All-Aware”
Quran 100:11word 5
“(is) surely All-Aware”
One who informs or makes known what has been learned.
A secondary Quran-focused interpretation of خبير as functionally equivalent to مُخْبِر, rather than the ordinary sense of one who is aware; it is associated with the divine disclosure of people's deeds.
- Mufradāt · row 385
Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:153word 23
“(is) All-Aware”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:234خَبِيرٌۭ(is) All-Aware
- 2:271خَبِيرٌۭ(is) All-Aware
- 3:153خَبِيرٌۢ(is) All-Aware
- 3:180خَبِيرٌۭ(is) All-Aware
- 4:35خَبِيرًۭاAll-Aware
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 55 Classical meanings
خَبُرَ، خَبَرَ، خَبِرَ
To know or possess knowledge of a thing, especially its internal or real state.
Classical verbal usage; the forms and transitivity vary by attestation.
- Lane · entry 18318
خَبَرَ
To try, test, prove, or examine by trial or experience.
Applies to testing a person or thing in order to discover what it is or what one knows of it.
- Lane · entry 18318
خَبَرَ
To furrow or plough land for sowing.
A specialized agricultural use with the land as object.
- Lane · entry 18318
خَبَرَ
To make food greasy or add grease to it.
A culinary use.
- Lane · entry 18318
خَبِرَ
Of land or a place, to become rich in lote-trees, soft ground, or related growth.
Describes the condition of a tract rather than an act of knowing.
- Lane · entry 18318
خَبِرَ
Of a she-camel, to abound in milk.
A specialized description of abundant milk production.
- Lane · entry 18318
خَابَرَ
To contract with another to till and cultivate land for a determined share of its produce.
A sharecropping or land-cultivation contract, traditionally described as a prohibited practice in the cited lexical discussion.
- Lane · entry 18320
أَخْبَرَ
To inform, tell, acquaint, or make someone know a matter.
May be constructed with بِـ or عَنْ; it can also mean to state or predicate something about someone or something.
- Lane · entry 18321
أَخْبَرَ
To find a milch camel abundant in milk.
A specialized, figurative or tropical use distinct from informing.
- Lane · entry 18321
تَخَبَّرَ
To buy a sheep or goat jointly, slaughter it, and divide its flesh among the purchasers according to their payments.
A specialized collective purchasing and division practice.
- Lane · entry 18322
اِسْتَخْبَرَ
To ask or seek information, news, or tidings; to inquire after news.
The inquiry may be directed to a person or pursued repeatedly and diligently.
- Lane · entry 18324
خَبْر
Trees such as lote and arak growing with abundant herbage around them.
A collective natural-landscape noun.
- Lane · entry 18325
خَبْر
Seed-produce or the yield of seed-bearing plants.
A botanical or agricultural use distinct from news and knowledge.
- Lane · entry 18325
خَبْر
A place where water rests or stagnates, including a water-furrow or hollow in mountain ground.
Refers to a water-holding natural depression or channel.
- Lane · entry 18325
خَبْر
A large leather water-bag.
The plural is خُبُورٌ in the cited usage.
- Lane · entry 18325
خَبْر
A she-camel abundant in milk.
A figurative comparison with the large water-bag.
- Lane · entry 18325
خَبَر
A transmitted report or tradition, especially in technical usage among traditionists.
Terminological distinctions vary: خَبَر may denote a report from someone other than the Prophet, or reports more generally, depending on the authority.
- Lane · entry 18328
خَبَر
A person's state, condition, or case.
A classical lexical use for the condition in which someone or something is found.
- Lane · entry 18328
خُبْرَة
A portion or share of flesh or fish taken by someone.
A share of food, especially one assigned from a jointly divided quantity.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
A sheep or goat purchased by several people, slaughtered, and divided among them.
Each participant receives a share proportioned to the amount paid.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
Food or flesh purchased for one's family.
A household-provision use, sometimes restricted in the cited discussion to meat.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
Food consisting of flesh and other kinds of nourishment.
A general food sense broader than the specialized shared portion.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
A thing brought forward or offered for entertainment or hospitality.
Used of what people gather around and consume or enjoy together.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
A large dish of crumbled or broken bread moistened with broth and made greasy.
A prepared food, also described as a bread-and-meat dish.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
A bowl containing bread and meat for several people.
A serving vessel or its communal contents.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
Food carried and provided for oneself during travel.
A travel provision or packed food.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
Seasoning, condiment, or savoury food accompanying a meal.
A culinary accompaniment rather than the main bread or meat.
- Lane · entry 18330
خُبْرَة
A date, in a regional usage.
A dialectally reported lexical specialization.
- Lane · entry 18330
خِبْرَة
Trial, proof, test, or the experience gained through testing.
Can denote the process by which information is verified as well as resulting practical experience.
- Lane · entry 18331
خَبْرَاء
A level tract rich in lote or arak trees, herbage, and retained water.
A natural landscape noun for a lush or water-bearing tract, especially in a meadow's lower ground.
- Lane · entry 18332
خَبْرَاء
A low or level place where water collects and stagnates, sometimes at the roots of trees.
Describes a water-collecting depression, whether or not its vegetation is emphasized.
- Lane · entry 18332
خَبَار
Soft, crumbling ground in which animals' feet sink or become hindered.
May include ground containing burrows and hollows.
- Lane · entry 18333
خَبَار
Heaps of earth or dust collected at the roots of trees.
A terrain feature associated with trees.
- Lane · entry 18333
خَبَار
Burrows of large field-rats.
A collective-noun use for such burrows.
- Lane · entry 18333
الخَبُور
The lion.
An isolated lexical designation for the animal.
- Lane · entry 18334
خَبِير
One possessing knowledge of God through acquaintance with His names and attributes.
A specialized religious use of the adjective, distinct from the general sense of being aware of things.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
A lawyer or person skilled in law or practical religion.
A technical designation of legal or religious expertise.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
A head or chief.
A specialized nominal use.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
A tiller or cultivator of land.
An agricultural occupational designation, related in the lexical tradition to working and softening the soil.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
Fur or soft hair, especially the hair of camels or the wild ass; also fallen hair or a portion of it.
A material noun with animal-hair and detached-hair uses.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
Soft plants, fresh herbage, or seed-produce.
A figurative natural-material use, including herbage cut and eaten.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
Froth or foam, especially the foam of camels' mouths.
A specialized physical-substance use.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِير
Seasoned or made savoury.
A culinary adjectival use.
- Lane · entry 18335
خَبِيرَة
Good wool from the first shearing.
A specialized textile or animal-product noun.
- Lane · entry 18337
خَبِيرَة
An invitation to the feast of a boy's عقيقة.
A specialized social and ritual use.
- Lane · entry 18337
خَابِر
One who tries, proves, or tests things; an experienced person.
An agent noun emphasizing experience gained through trial.
- Lane · entry 18338
خَابُور
A plant or tree with a bright, fragrant blossom used to adorn gardens.
A botanical designation reported with uncertainty about its regional occurrence.
- Lane · entry 18339
الخَيْبَرَى
The black serpent.
A lexicalized animal name, also appearing in an imprecation.
- Lane · entry 18340
خَيْبَرَى
A notoriously dangerous or often fatal fever, in the expression “the fever of Khaybar.”
An idiomatic expression associated with a fever against which people warn one another.
- Lane · entry 18340
أَخْبَارِيّ
A historian, formed as a relational adjective from the plural أخبار.
A derived designation for one concerned with reports or historical accounts.
- Lane · entry 18341
مَخْبَر
The internal or intrinsic state or quality of a thing, as opposed to its outward appearance.
Contrasted with appearance, aspect, or external form.
- Lane · entry 18342
مَخْبَرَة
A privy or place where excrement is voided.
A specialized place noun.
- Lane · entry 18343
مَخْبَرَانِيّ
A person of good internal or intrinsic qualities.
Describes inward character in contrast with outward appearance.
- Lane · entry 18345
مَخْبُور
Well seasoned or containing much grease.
A culinary adjectival use.
- Lane · entry 18346
مُخْتَبَر
Of a camel, having much flesh.
A rare, tentatively marked specialized use in the lexical source.
- Lane · entry 18347
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
خَبَر and خُبْر are distinct vocalized nouns: the former centers on reported information or news, while the latter denotes knowledge or informed understanding.
The Quranic خَبِير entry is presented as the citation adjective even where QAC tags some occurrences nominally. Its second sense records a secondary lexical interpretation of the Quranic attribute as “one who informs.”
Several rare botanical, animal, culinary, dialectal, and technical extensions are retained as Classical Arabic meanings and should not be read as Quranic senses.