Quranic root
خلص
kh · l · ṣ
The root centers on removing admixture and refining something until it is clear, pure, or genuine.
From clarification and purification, the lexical range develops toward separation, release from difficulty, exclusivity, undivided sincerity, and the selection of something for oneself.
- Maqāyīs · row 1633
- Mufradāt · row 429
- 7
- Quran-attested forms
- 8
- Quran senses
- 31
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَلَصَ
khalaṣa
- 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 withdraw apart and confer privately.
In the Quranic construction خَلَصُوا نَجِيًّا, the subject separates from others for a private consultation.
- Lane · entry 19813
- Mufradāt · row 429
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:80word 4
“they secluded themselves”
أَخْلَصَ
ʾakhlaṣa
- 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 make pure or undivided; to devote something exclusively and sincerely, especially religion or worship to God.
Takes a direct object that is rendered pure or undivided. In religious usage it denotes freedom from hypocrisy and exclusive devotion; in the construction associated with 38:46, it denotes rendering people pure through a distinctive quality.
- Lane · entry 19816
- Lane · entry 19831
- Mufradāt · row 429
Selected Quran examples
Quran 4:146word 7
“and are sincere”
Quran 38:46word 2
“[We] chose them”
اِسْتَخْلَصَ
āistakhlaṣa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form X
- Form
- X
- 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 select, appropriate, or reserve something or someone exclusively for oneself.
The construction استخلصه لنفسه expresses choosing or appropriating the object as one's particular possession or associate.
- Lane · entry 19819
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:54word 5
“I will select him”
مُخْلَص
mukhlaṣ
- Part of speech
- Passive participle / adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 9 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.
Chosen or specially purified by God; singled out as free from spiritual pollution.
Passive in sense: the person is one whom God has selected or purified. The Quran may contextually render the resulting state as being among the sincere.
- Lane · entry 19835
- Mufradāt · row 429
Selected Quran examples
Quran 19:51word 7
“chosen”
Quran 37:40word 4
“the chosen ones”
Quran 15:40word 4
“the ones who are sincere”
مُخْلِص
mukhliṣ
- Part of speech
- Active participle / noun
- Quran occurrences
- 11 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 is pure and sincere in devotion, especially one who worships God without hypocrisy or association.
Active in sense: the subject makes faith, religion, worship, or intention undivided and exclusively directed to God.
- Lane · entry 19836
- Mufradāt · row 429
Selected Quran examples
خَالِص
khāliṣ
- Part of speech
- Active participle / adjective
- 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.
Pure, clear, genuine, and free from admixture.
Used literally of a substance or quality and figuratively of undivided religion or devotion; the Quranic usage includes pure milk and pure religion.
- Lane · entry 19830
- Mufradāt · row 429
Selected Quran examples
Quran 16:66word 15
“pure”
Quran 39:3word 4
“the pure”
خَالِصَة
khāliṣah
- Part of speech
- Adjective / substantive · 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.
Exclusive, reserved solely for one person or group.
Used predicatively or substantivally for something restricted to a specified party, without sharing by others.
- Lane · entry 19831
- Mufradāt · row 429
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:94word 9
“exclusively”
Quran 7:32word 19
“exclusively (for them)”
A pure or distinctive quality, especially a quality by which someone is specially characterized.
In بِخَالِصَةٍ ذِكْرَى الدَّارِ, the word denotes a pure or special quality associated with remembering the final abode.
- Lane · entry 19831
Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:46word 3
“for an exclusive (quality)”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:94خَالِصَةًۭexclusively
- 2:139مُخْلِصُونَ(are) sincere
- 4:146وَأَخْلَصُوا۟and are sincere
- 6:139خَالِصَةٌۭ(is) exclusively
- 7:29مُخْلِصِينَ(being) sincere
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 27 Classical meanings
خَلَصَ
To become clear, pure, unmixed, or genuine; to be freed from admixture.
Used of things that separate from turbidity or sediment, such as water or clarified butter.
- Lane · entry 19813
خَلَصَ
To become safe, secure, or free from difficulty or destruction.
خَلَصَ مِنْ denotes emerging safely from an entanglement, predicament, or danger.
- Lane · entry 19813
خَلَصَ
To come to, reach, or arrive at someone or a place.
The verb may occur with إِلَى or بِـ for the destination or person reached.
- Lane · entry 19813
خَلَصَ
To come before a judge or governor and refer a case or claim to him for judgment.
A conventional transitive construction for bringing a cause before an authority.
- Lane · entry 19813
خَلَصَ
To take the clarified essence from cooked butter.
A specialized culinary usage connected with the extraction of خُلَاصَة from clarified butter.
- Lane · entry 19813
خَلَّصَ
To make clear or pure; to clarify, purify, or refine.
Causative Form II usage, including the clarification of a substance by removing what clouds or adulterates it.
- Lane · entry 19814
خَلَّصَ
To separate one thing from another or separate two parties from each other.
The object is removed from association or mixture with another object.
- Lane · entry 19814
خَلَّصَ
To save, secure, or free someone from a snare, difficulty, or destruction.
Causative release from a state of being caught, entangled, or endangered.
- Lane · entry 19814
خَلَّصَ
To disentangle or unravel something that has become caught or twisted.
Especially used of spun thread or a comparable physical entanglement.
- Lane · entry 19814
خَلَّصَ
To make something clear by explaining, expounding, or interpreting it.
A figurative extension from removing obscurity or admixture.
- Lane · entry 19814
خَلَّصَ
To give an equivalent, requital, compensation, or payment for work.
The object or recipient receives what is due as an equivalent or remuneration.
- Lane · entry 19814
خَالَصَ
To treat another with reciprocal purity, sincerity, or affection.
Used of mutual sincerity in love, affection, or social intercourse, including sincere religious conduct toward God.
- Lane · entry 19815
أَخْلَصَ
To clarify or purify cooked butter, and by extension to purify substances such as gold or silver.
A specialized transitive culinary or refining usage; it may describe the action of fire as well.
- Lane · entry 19816
تَخَلَّصَ
To save oneself, escape, or become free and secure from a danger or entanglement.
Reflexive or intransitive release from a snare, embarrassment, difficulty, or destruction.
- Lane · entry 19817
تَخَالَصَ
To act toward one another with sincere affection and mutual purity.
Reciprocal usage referring particularly to love or affection between parties.
- Lane · entry 19818
اِسْتَخْلَصَ
To extract butter from milk.
A technical culinary construction for obtaining the clarified product from milk.
- Lane · entry 19819
خِلْص
A particular, intimate, or confidential friend and companion.
May denote a sincere or private associate who converses closely with a person.
- Lane · entry 19820
خَلَص
A species of climbing tree resembling a grapevine.
A botanical noun with a singular feminine marker omitted in the cited form.
- Lane · entry 19821
خَلَاص
Deliverance or release, as in the conventional expression يوم الخلاص.
In that expression, it refers to a traditional day of emergence or deliverance when believers are distinguished.
- Lane · entry 19824
خَلَاص
An equivalent, requital, compensation, or wage.
A nominal use for what is given in return for a thing or for work performed.
- Lane · entry 19824
خُلَاصَة
The clarified portion of cooked butter; by extension, an extracted essence or the choicest part of something.
Includes clarified butter or butter extracted from milk, and figuratively the clear, excellent, or best part of a matter.
- Lane · entry 19829
خُلَاصَة
Dates, flour, or parched-grain meal added to butter during cooking to clarify it.
A specialized culinary use for the material thrown into the pot so that butter separates from water, milk, and sediment.
- Lane · entry 19829
خُلَاصَة
The residue or sediment left at the bottom after clarification.
A secondary culinary usage referring to what remains in the cooking vessel rather than the clarified product itself.
- Lane · entry 19829
خُلَاصَة
A thickened juice or syrup made from dates.
A specialized nominal usage for inspissated date juice.
- Lane · entry 19829
خَالِص
White or of a clear, pure color.
A specialized application of purity terminology to color or to a white garment or lining.
- Lane · entry 19830
مَخْلَص
A place of safety, security, or escape from an event.
A nominal designation for a route or place by which one gains release from danger.
- Lane · entry 19834
مُتَخَلِّص
Picked or selected, especially of choice sapphires.
A rare adjectival usage describing gems selected from among others.
- Lane · entry 19837
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The passive participle مُخْلَص emphasizes being chosen or purified, whereas the active participle مُخْلِص emphasizes actively maintaining undivided sincerity; Quranic translations may overlap them.
At 38:46, contextual renderings such as “chose them” reflect an interpretive result of the purification and special-quality construction; the lexical sense represented here is rendering pure or specially devoted, not a separate Form IV selection verb.