Quranic root
خلق
kh · l · q
The root centers on determining a thing's measure and proportion, and on smoothness or evenness.
From measuring and proportioning, the lexicon develops into forming or bringing something into existence, whether by originating it or producing it from an existing substance. It also extends to outward constitution, inner disposition, allotted share, fabrication, smoothness, and wearing out.
- Maqāyīs · row 1637
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- 8
- Quran-attested forms
- 15
- Quran senses
- 261
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَلَقَ
khalaqa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 184 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 measure, proportion, design, and form something according to a determined measure or pattern.
This includes making a form from a material according to its proper proportions, as in the forming of a thing like a bird from clay. It can describe either the determining of the design or its execution.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 3:49word 12
“[I] design”
To bring into existence, create, or produce a thing.
The Quran uses this for originating beings and worlds, and for producing one thing from another. With God as subject it denotes creative origination and bringing into being according to wise determination; it is not restricted to creation from no preexisting material in every passage.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:3word 5
“created”
To fabricate or forge speech, a claim, falsehood, or other fiction.
This is a figurative use for devising a false saying or falsehood, including the construction of creating falsehood.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 29:17word 7
“and you create”
In a Quranic euphemistic construction, to refer to the sexual organs or sexual relations made available for intercourse.
This specialized construction occurs in the expression concerning what the Lord has created for them; the lexical explanation identifies it as a reference to women's sexual organs and the sexual practice being condemned in the verse.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:166word 3
“created”
مُخَلَّق
mukhallaq
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- 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.
Formed, fully formed, or having its bodily features become apparent.
In the Quranic embryological construction it contrasts with an unformed lump and indicates a stage whose form is established or discernible.
- Lane · entry 19953
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:5word 22
“formed”
خَالِق
khāliq
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 12 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 creates, originates, or brings things into existence; the Creator.
With the definite article as a divine epithet, it denotes the Creator. As an indefinite active participle it can describe an agent who is about to create or who creates in a particular act.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:28word 6
“(will) create”
Quran 59:24word 3
“the Creator”
One who determines, proportionates, or forms things according to their proper measure.
This sense is especially relevant in comparative or plural expressions such as “the best of the formers or proportioners,” while the same participle can elsewhere mean Creator in the stronger sense.
- Lane · entry 19962
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 23:14word 21
“(of) the Creators”
خَلْق
khalq
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 52 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.
Creation: the act, result, or ordered reality of bringing things into existence.
The word can refer to creation as an activity or to the created order. In expressions such as “the creation of God,” classical interpretation may focus on created nature, divine ordinance, or religion, depending on the construction; these are interpretive applications of the same created-order sense.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:164word 3
“(the) creation”
Created beings or created things; the creation collectively.
It may denote beings generally, or specifically mankind, jinn, or other classes of creatures when the context supplies that scope.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 13:16word 34
“like His creation”
The outward make, form, stature, or visible constitution of a created thing.
This sense concerns the features and proportions apprehended outwardly, including a person's or creature's bodily make and the form of a thing.
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 7:69word 21
“the stature”
Quran 20:50word 7
“its form”
خَلَّاق
khallāq
- Part of speech
- Intensive active participle
- 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.
The great, supreme, or prolific Creator; one who creates abundantly.
The intensive form emphasizes greatness, abundance, or repeated creative activity rather than introducing a different act from ordinary creating.
- Lane · entry 19962
Selected Quran examples
Quran 15:86word 4
“(is) the Creator”
Quran 36:81word 13
“(is) the Supreme Creator”
خُلُق
khuluq
- 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 custom, habitual practice, or established way of conduct.
It can denote a practice inherited from earlier people, as in the Quranic expression describing the custom of the ancients.
- Lane · entry 19943
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:137word 4
“(the) custom”
Inner moral character, disposition, or religious conduct.
This concerns the inward qualities and habits by which a person is formed and acts; “religion” can be an extended contextual rendering when those qualities are expressed through disciplined conduct.
- Lane · entry 19943
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 68:4word 3
“(of) a moral character”
اِخْتِلَاق
āikhtilāq
- Part of speech
- Verbal 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.
Fabrication, invention, or forged falsehood.
The noun denotes a claim or statement deliberately made up rather than true; in the Quran it occurs as an accusation of fabrication.
- Lane · entry 19932
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Selected Quran examples
Quran 38:7word 10
“a fabrication”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:21خَلَقَكُمْcreated you
- 2:29خَلَقَcreated
- 2:102خَلَـٰقٍۢ ۚshare
- 2:164خَلْقِ(the) creation
- 2:200خَلَـٰقٍۢany share
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 49 Classical meanings
خَلَقَ
To make something smooth, even, or equable.
Used of an arrow, wood, a stick, or another object that has been smoothed.
- Lane · entry 19932
خَلُقَ
To be or become goodly, complete, or well made in bodily constitution.
The evidence illustrates the verb with bodily make; the definition is stated neutrally and is not restricted to a particular gender.
- Lane · entry 19932
خَلِقَ
To be or become smooth, even, or free from irregularity.
It may be applied to a thing such as a rock, including one free from cracks or fractures.
- Lane · entry 19932
- Lane · entry 19941
خَلِقَ
To become old and worn out; of a garment, to become threadbare.
The same branch is extended figuratively to declining youth or a face worn by degrading use.
- Lane · entry 19932
خَلُقَ
To be naturally adapted, disposed, suitable, or worthy for something.
The construction takes a complement expressing the act or quality for which someone or something is considered fitted.
- Lane · entry 19932
خَلَّقَ
To rub or perfume someone with khulūq, a traditional perfume.
The verb may be transitive, including perfuming another person or applying the perfume to the body.
- Lane · entry 19933
خَالَقَ
To associate or comport oneself with people according to their natures or moral qualities.
The construction can mean dealing with someone according to their character, or dealing with them with good character.
- Lane · entry 19934
أَخْلَقَ
To wear something out, or to have or become provided with old and worn clothing.
The verb may be transitive or intransitive and is also used figuratively of time wearing something out.
- Lane · entry 19935
أَخْلَقَ
To clothe someone in an old garment or give someone an old garment.
The object is the person receiving or being clad in the worn garment.
- Lane · entry 19935
إِخْلَاق
The cutting out of a garment after it has been measured.
This is a specialized clothing expression associated with the sequence of wearing out or replacing a garment.
- Lane · entry 19935
أَخْلَقَ
To be likely, probable, or expected to be the case.
The impersonal and comparative expressions in this branch concern probability or what is likely to happen.
- Lane · entry 19935
تَخَلَّقَ
To affect or feign a nature, character, or quality that is not one's own.
The construction describes pretending before people or assuming a disposition contrary to one's real intention.
- Lane · entry 19936
تَخَلَّقَ
To rub oneself with or become perfumed by khulūq.
This is the reflexive or intransitive perfume construction.
- Lane · entry 19936
اِخْلَوْلَقَ
To become very smooth, even, or uniform; of clouds, to gather and become prepared or likely to rain.
The intensive form is used of a horse's back, a trace becoming level with the ground, and clouds whose sides gather or become ready to rain.
- Lane · entry 19938
خَلْق
Anything made smooth or even.
This is the nominal result associated with smoothing.
- Lane · entry 19939
خَلَق
Old, worn-out, or threadbare; also an old or decayed thing.
The epithet can describe garments, ropes, houses, bodies, and similar things, and appears in idioms involving the cheapness of worn goods.
- Lane · entry 19941
خَلِق
A cloud bearing a sign of rain or giving hope of rain.
The term can describe a cloud whose condition indicates or promises rain.
- Lane · entry 19942
نَوْمَةُ الخُلُق
The prescribed midday sleep or nap.
This is an established phrase rather than a general additional sense of moral character.
- Lane · entry 19943
خُلْقَة
Smoothness or evenness.
The noun is a nominal expression for the quality of being smooth.
- Lane · entry 19944
خِلْقَة
A particular natural make or constitution, especially the constitution of an animated being.
It can also describe something natural or original, as opposed to an acquired or accidental condition.
- Lane · entry 19945
خِلْقِيّ
Natural, constitutional, or belonging to an innate constitution.
It contrasts with what is chosen, acquired, or accidental, and may describe a natural fault or quality.
- Lane · entry 19947
خَلَقِيّ
A person who wears old and worn-out clothes.
This is a lexicalized adjective or substantivized description of habitual clothing.
- Lane · entry 19948
خُلْقَانِيّ
A seller of old and worn-out clothes.
The term is occupational and derives from the branch concerning worn garments.
- Lane · entry 19949
خَلُوق
A yellowish perfume composed chiefly of saffron and other ingredients.
It is described as a fluid or thick perfume traditionally associated especially with women's use.
- Lane · entry 19952
خَلِيق
Perfect, complete, or well proportioned in make.
It may describe a bodily constitution or a formed object whose proper proportions have become apparent.
- Lane · entry 19953
خَلِيق
Adapted, suited, fit, worthy, or disposed to do or receive something.
Common constructions use لِـ, بِـ, or أَنْ with the action or quality for which the subject is considered suitable.
- Lane · entry 19953
- Lane · entry 19964
خَلِيق
Probable or likely to happen or be the case.
This is the probability use of the adjective, distinct from being inherently suited or worthy.
- Lane · entry 19953
خَلِيق
Habituated or accustomed.
The sense describes a disposition established through repeated association or practice.
- Lane · entry 19953
خَلِيق
Like or resembling another person or thing.
The construction may express likeness or correspondence rather than aptitude.
- Lane · entry 19953
خَلِيقَة
Beasts, brutes, or nonhuman creatures.
This collective use occurs in an expression contrasting mankind with animals or other creatures.
- Lane · entry 19957
خَلِيقَة
A newly dug well, a waterless well, or a natural hollow or cavity in the ground.
The term covers several closely related kinds of excavated or hollow places, including a small mountain cavity in which water stagnates.
- Lane · entry 19957
خَلَائِق
Large smooth masses of stone at the head of a well, used as standing places by the person drawing water.
This is a specialized plural or collective term for the stones of a watering place.
- Lane · entry 19959
خَالِق
A worker in leather or a similar material who measures and cuts it.
This occupational noun reflects the sequence of determining a measure and then cutting the material.
- Lane · entry 19962
خَوَالِق
Smooth mountains.
The term is attested as a plural whose singular is not specified in the cited passage.
- Lane · entry 19963
أَخْلَق
Smooth, solid, and resistant to impression; free from cracks or fractures.
It can describe stone, rock, a camel's foot, or a barren hill, with the precise object supplied by context.
- Lane · entry 19964
أَخْلَق
Poor or destitute, especially lacking property or good deeds.
This is a figurative extension from being bare or smooth of what ordinarily covers or marks it.
- Lane · entry 19964
أَخْلَق
The exterior of a horse's hoof.
This is a specialized anatomical use.
- Lane · entry 19964
خَلْقَاء
Impervious to sexual intercourse.
The cited adjective is applied to a woman in this specialized anatomical sense.
- Lane · entry 19964
خَلْقَاء
The sky, conceived as smooth and even.
This is a substantivized use based on the sky's perceived smoothness or evenness.
- Lane · entry 19964
خَلْقَاء
The outer side or flank of a camel or similar animal.
The term can identify the smooth outer part of the animal's side.
- Lane · entry 19964
خَلْقَاء
The interior, visible, and smooth part of the upper mouth.
This anatomical term refers to the upper interior of the mouth and its exposed smooth surface.
- Lane · entry 19964
خَلْقَاء
The even, smooth part of the forehead.
The pluralized or derived expression can occur in descriptions of dragging someone across the smooth parts of the forehead.
- Lane · entry 19964
خُلَيْقَاء
A part of a horse's face near the meeting of the forehead and the nasal bone, or the area between the eyes.
The terminology distinguishes the central area between the eyes from the sloping parts beside it.
- Lane · entry 19964
مُخَلَّق
Made smooth and even, especially an arrow or other prepared object.
The derived passive participle can describe an object finished by smoothing or evening it.
- Lane · entry 19966
- Lane · entry 19968
مَخْلُوق
A creature or created thing.
When substantivized, the passive participle has a plural referring to created beings or things.
- Lane · entry 19967
مَخْلُوق
Forged or falsely attributed, especially an ode attributed to someone other than its author.
This is a figurative passive-participial use concerning authorship.
- Lane · entry 19967
مُخْتَلَق
Generous in natural disposition.
The adjective describes a favorable character or innate disposition.
- Lane · entry 19968
مُخْتَلَق
Created with a nature suited to a role, such as dominion or companionship.
The complement لِـ identifies the role or relationship for which the person is naturally fitted.
- Lane · entry 19968
مُخْلَوْلِق
Very smooth or highly even.
The form is intensive in meaning and can describe an exceptionally smooth surface.
- Lane · entry 19969
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The root's two major orientations—proportioning and smoothness—should not be treated as one direct meaning in every derived form.
خَلْق and خُلُق are distinct Quranic headwords: the former concerns creation, created beings, and outward form, while the latter concerns custom and inner moral character.
خَالِق may be a general active participle in an indefinite construction, whereas the definite divine epithet الخَالِق denotes the Creator; comparative and plural contexts can emphasize proportioning or forming.
Some classical interpretations of “the creation of God” move between bodily constitution, created order, and divine religion or ordinance; these are preserved as constructional nuances rather than separate unqualified senses.