Quranic root
خبث
kh · b · th
The root denotes what is contrary to ṭayyib: badness, unsoundness, impurity, or repugnance, whether sensory, moral, or intellectual.
The semantic range develops from defective or impure material, such as metallic dross and foul taste or odor, to corrupt words, beliefs, actions, persons, prohibited things, and harmful associations. The lexical tradition distinguishes خَبِيث, bad in itself, from مُخْبِث, associated with or producing badness.
- Maqāyīs · row 1501
- Mufradāt · row 384
- Lane · entry 18306
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 16
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَبُثَ
khabutha
- 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 be or become bad, foul, or deficient in quality.
In the Quranic occurrence, the verb describes land whose produce is bad or unproductive; the definition is stated neutrally because the lexical evidence also applies it more broadly to things that become خَبِيث.
- Lane · entry 18295
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:58word 8
“is bad”
خَبِيث
khabīth
- Part of speech
- Adjective · substantivized noun
- Quran occurrences
- 15 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.
Bad, corrupt, wicked, or morally and intellectually unsound; something or someone characterized by such badness.
The Quran applies this contrastively to bad persons and souls, corrupt deeds and choices, false or ugly words, disbelief, and other things opposed to ṭayyib. It may be substantivized and may appear in masculine or feminine forms and plurals.
- Lane · entry 18306
- Mufradāt · row 384
Selected Quran examples
Impure, repugnant, or prohibited things; what is not acceptable or wholesome.
This usage concerns things rejected as foul, unlawful, or contrary to what is good, including the Quranic contrast between the khabīth and the ṭayyib. It is not limited to a single physical object class.
- Lane · entry 18306
- Mufradāt · row 384
Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:157word 23
“the impure things”
In the construction تَعْمَلُ الْخَبَائِثَ, shameful or wicked acts, specifically intercourse between men.
This is a Quran-specific euphemistic construction explained as referring to the sexual practice associated with the people of Lot; it should not be generalized to every occurrence of خَبَائِث.
- Mufradāt · row 384
Selected Quran examples
Quran 21:74word 11
“wicked deeds”
In الشَّجَرَةُ الْخَبِيثَةُ, a bad or evil tree, interpreted in the lexical tradition as a colocynth or dodder-like plant, and also associated with garlic, onion, or leek.
This is a Quran-attested expression in the supplied 14:26 occurrences. The alternative plant identifications are interpretive specifications of the expression, not a general restriction on the adjective.
- Lane · entry 18306
Selected Quran examples
Quran 14:26word 5
“evil”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:267ٱلْخَبِيثَthe bad
- 3:179ٱلْخَبِيثَthe evil
- 4:2ٱلْخَبِيثَthe bad
- 5:100ٱلْخَبِيثُthe evil
- 5:100ٱلْخَبِيثِ ۚ(of) the evil
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 34 Classical meanings
خَبُثَ
Of an odor or taste, to become foul, nauseating, or abominable; of the soul or stomach, to become heavy or agitated with a tendency to vomit.
This includes idiomatic expressions describing a disagreeable smell, taste, or bodily reaction.
- Lane · entry 18295
خَبُثَ
To commit adultery or fornication with someone.
A derived verbal construction with بِها specifies the sexual partner.
- Lane · entry 18295
خَبُثَ
Of a venomous reptile or similar creature, to be malignant, noxious, impure, or foul.
This is an application to harmful or unclean creatures, distinct from the neutral sense of becoming bad.
- Lane · entry 18295
يُخَبِّثُ
To cause the soul or stomach to become heavy, nauseated, or inclined to vomit.
Form II is attested in the causative construction concerning something that produces this bodily reaction.
- Lane · entry 18296
أَخْبَثَ
To become characterized by badness or wickedness, or to have or take bad, deceitful, or corrupt companions and connections.
The derived form can describe either the subject's own condition or the bad character of the people associated with him.
- Lane · entry 18297
أَخْبَثَ
To teach someone to be bad, wicked, or deceitful, and thereby render that person corrupt or depraved.
This is the causative transitive use of the Form IV verb.
- Lane · entry 18297
تَحَابَثَ
To pretend to be bad, wicked, or deceitful, or to affect or attempt such conduct.
The form may express a display or deliberate adoption of badness rather than an established character.
- Lane · entry 18299
اِسْتَخْبَثَ
To deem or regard something as bad, impure, unclean, foul, or corrupt.
The form is used both for judging creatures such as serpents and scorpions unclean and for judging a word or dialectal variant corrupt.
- Lane · entry 18300
خُبْثٌ
Badness or any quality denoted by خَبِيث; the state of being bad, wicked, deceitful, or corrupt.
This is an abstract noun and may also denote the condition of having bad companions or connections.
- Lane · entry 18301
خُبْثٌ
The state of having bad, wicked, or deceitful companions, friends, connections, or assistants.
This is a specialized nominal sense associated with the derived social relation rather than merely with personal badness.
- Lane · entry 18301
خُبْثٌ
Adultery or fornication.
This is a specialized use of the abstract noun for sexual misconduct.
- Lane · entry 18301
خَبَثٌ
The dross or impure residue of iron or silver when molten; by extension, an adulterating alloy or anything lacking goodness.
The figurative contrast is between refined metal or pure gold and its rejected residue.
- Lane · entry 18302
خَبَثٌ
Excrement, ordure, impurity, or filth.
This is a concrete and technical extension of the notion of rejected impurity.
- Lane · entry 18302
خِبْثَةٌ
Unlawful capture, especially the capture of a person from a protected people as a slave.
The term concerns capture contrary to a treaty, league, or an inviolable right belonging to the captured people.
- Lane · entry 18304
خِبْثَةٌ
Illegitimate or adulterous descent; being born spuriously.
The expression لِخِبْثَةٍ is used of offspring attributed to adultery or fornication.
- Lane · entry 18304
خَبِيثٌ
A bad, corrupt, base, wicked, deceitful, guileful, crafty, or cunning person.
This personal application is broader than any one Quranic contextual translation.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
An adulterer or fornicator.
This is a specialized personal application of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
A blamer, censurer, slanderer, or calumniator.
This is a reported personal use centered on harmful speech about others.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
Of language, opprobrious, reviling, bad, or corrupt.
The adjective may describe either abusive speech or a word or dialect considered corrupt in authority or usage.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
Of religion, infidel or pertaining to infidelity.
This is a figurative application to religious belief or affiliation.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
Of food, drink, medicine, pungent plants, blood, or similar things, disagreeable, impure, unlawful, injurious, or foul.
The particular application depends on the object: taste and odor, legal unlawfulness, impurity, or harmful effect. These classical specifications are broader than the supplied Quran contexts.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
A person who takes bad, wicked, or deceitful companions, connections, or assistants.
This is a conventional personal application distinct from simply being bad in oneself.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثُ النَّفْسِ
Having a heavy, heaving, or nauseated soul or stomach.
The phrase describes a disagreeable bodily state and is not a general psychological meaning of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثٌ
Of a well or receptacle, corrupt and corrupting what falls into it.
This is a figurative description of a source that spoils its contents.
- Lane · entry 18306
الخُبْثُ وَالْخَبَائِثُ
In the formula used when entering a privy, male and female devils; alternatively, infidelity, disobedience, wicked conduct, or evil qualities.
The alternatives reflect established interpretations of the idiom and should not be treated as ordinary unrestricted meanings of the plural nouns.
- Lane · entry 18306
خَبِيثَةٌ
As a substantive, a bad or wicked quality, or a culpable action.
The plural خَبَائِثُ may denote bad qualities or culpable acts; wine is idiomatically called the mother of such qualities.
- Lane · entry 18308
خَبَائِثُ
Foul, filthy, or unclean creatures that were traditionally regarded as unsuitable for eating, such as vipers, scorpions, lizards, beetles, and mice.
This is a culturally specified dietary classification, not a general restriction on every use of خَبَائِث.
- Lane · entry 18308
خِبِّيثٌ
Very bad, wicked, or deceitful; one much addicted to adultery or fornication.
The doubled pattern is an intensive personal adjective.
- Lane · entry 18309
أَخْبَثُ
Worse, worst, or most wicked and deceitful.
It may be used of people collectively or comparatively of a word or dialectal variant.
- Lane · entry 18313
الأَخْبَثَانِ
A conventional paired expression for bodily impurities, especially urine and human excrement; variant explanations include vomit and ordure, or other paired sources of distress.
This is a fixed technical expression used in contexts of bodily relief or discomfort.
- Lane · entry 18313
تُخُبِّثَ
A state or situation that has become bad, corrupt, disapproved, or otherwise disordered.
The form occurs in the idiom وَقَعَ فِي وَادِي تُخُبِّثَ, meaning to fall into such a condition.
- Lane · entry 18314
مُخْبِثٌ
One who teaches or causes others to become bad, wicked, or deceitful.
This active-participial use focuses on producing bad character in others.
- Lane · entry 18315
مُخْبِثٌ
According to a reported extension, one who attributes or imputes badness or similar faults to others.
This is an explicitly reported secondary application, retained as a lexical possibility rather than treated as the primary sense.
- Lane · entry 18315
مَخْبَثَةٌ
A cause of evil or corruption; of food, something that causes heaviness or nausea, or that is unlawful.
The noun denotes a source or cause of bad effects, with the food use specifying bodily or legal harm.
- Lane · entry 18316
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic nominal groups are consolidated under the citation headword خَبِيث; feminine and plural forms remain represented in the occurrence count and examples.
The lexical evidence uses an older Quran-reference convention for the tree expression. The modern 14:26 assignment in the public examples relies on the independently supplied QAC word locations, not on mechanically converting that historical citation.