Quranic root
خمر
kh · m · r
The root centers on covering and hidden intermixture: concealing something, covering it, or mixing with it in a way that obscures or penetrates.
From this orientation develop the senses of a cover or head-covering, a covert or hidden crowd, mingling or remaining with something, fermentation and maturation, and wine as a substance that veils or mingles with the intellect. The enslavement sense is preserved as a recognized divergent development.
- Maqāyīs · row 1643
- Mufradāt · row 435
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 7
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَمْر
khamr
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 6 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.
An intoxicating beverage; wine, understood broadly as a drink that clouds or mingles with the intellect.
Used in the Quran for the intoxicating beverage mentioned in the prohibition passages and in the prison narrative. Classical usage varies between a narrower reference to grape or date wine and a broader reference to any intoxicating beverage.
- Lane · entry 20030
- Lane · entry 20037
- Mufradāt · row 435
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:219word 3
“[the] intoxicants”
Quran 5:90word 5
“the intoxicants”
Quran 12:36word 10
“wine”
Quran 47:15word 20
“wine”
Grapes, in an interpretation of the expression “I am pressing khamr” in Joseph 12:36.
This is a Quran-specific interpretive sense for 12:36, where خَمْرًا is understood by some authorities as grapes rather than wine itself; it should not be generalized to every occurrence of خَمْر.
- Lane · entry 20037
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:36word 10
“wine”
خِمَار
khimār
- Part of speech
- Noun · head covering
- 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.
A head-covering or veil, especially the covering worn by a woman.
The Quranic plural خُمُر in 24:31 refers to women's head-coverings and occurs in the instruction to draw them over the bosoms.
- Lane · entry 20048
- Mufradāt · row 435
Selected Quran examples
Quran 24:31word 16
“their head covers”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:219ٱلْخَمْرِ[the] intoxicants
- 5:90ٱلْخَمْرُthe intoxicants
- 5:91ٱلْخَمْرِintoxicants
- 12:36خَمْرًۭا ۖwine
- 12:41خَمْرًۭا ۖwine
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 43 Classical meanings
خَمَرَ
To cover, veil, conceal, or keep hidden; also to conceal something in the mind or conceal testimony.
Applies literally to objects, faces, vessels, houses, or land, and figuratively to thoughts, suspicions, and testimony.
- Lane · entry 20030
خَمِرَ
To become hidden or conceal oneself, including by taking refuge in a covert.
Also used of news or a story becoming hidden from someone.
- Lane · entry 20030
خَمِرَ
To change or become altered from a former state or condition.
- Lane · entry 20030
خَمَرَ
To leaven or ferment dough or a beverage, or to leave dough, clay, or a similar substance until it matures or becomes good.
The object may be dough, clay, perfume, or the beverage called نبيذ.
- Lane · entry 20030
خَمَرَ
To give a person or an animal wine to drink.
- Lane · entry 20030
خُمِرَ
To be affected by the after-effects of intoxication.
The construction describes suffering or being affected by خُمَار, the remains of intoxication.
- Lane · entry 20030
خَمَرَ
To feel ashamed, bashful, shy, or abashed with respect to someone.
- Lane · entry 20030
خَامَرَ
To mix, mingle, intermingle, become incorporated with, or pervade something; also to associate familiarly with someone.
The object may be a substance, a disease, or the intellect; the social use denotes familiar intercourse or intimacy.
- Lane · entry 20032
خَامَرَ
To approach or become near to something.
- Lane · entry 20032
خَامَرَ
To remain in, stay in, or cling to a place without leaving it.
Used of a place, house, or tent.
- Lane · entry 20032
خَامَرَ
To sell a free person as a slave.
A dialectal usage attributed to Yemen.
- Lane · entry 20032
أَخْمَرَتِ الأَرْضُ
For land to abound in tangled trees or other coverts.
- Lane · entry 20033
أَخْمَرَ
To give someone a thing or put that person in possession of it.
A usage identified as common in Yemen; it may also mean giving something as a free gift.
- Lane · entry 20033
تَخَمَّرَتْ
To apply a cosmetic or perfume preparation to the face to beautify its complexion.
- Lane · entry 20034
تَخَمَّرَ
To be affected with languor by wine.
- Lane · entry 20034
اِخْتَمَرَتْ
To put on or wear a خِمَار.
The subject is described as a woman in the cited lexical usage.
- Lane · entry 20035
اِخْتَمَرَ
To ferment, mature, or become changed in condition or odor.
Used of dough, clay, perfume, a beverage, or wine becoming mature and fermented.
- Lane · entry 20035
اِسْتَخْمَرَ
To make someone a slave or take someone as a slave.
A dialectal usage associated with Yemen and also attested in the cited tradition.
- Lane · entry 20036
خَمْر
In the proverb pairing it with vinegar, a term for good or evil according to differing Arab usages.
This is an idiomatic proverb whose evaluation of خَمْر and خلّ varies among speakers; it is not a general definition of the beverage noun.
- Lane · entry 20037
خَمَر
A covert or place of concealment, such as dense trees, a hollow, an elevated tract of sand, or a thicket.
The term may also occur in expressions for coming secretly or clandestinely.
- Lane · entry 20038
خَمَر
A crowd, congregation, or multitude of people, especially a crowd that conceals someone within it.
- Lane · entry 20038
خَمِر
A place abounding in dense coverts or trees that conceal those within it.
- Lane · entry 20039
خَمِر
A person affected by a disease or in the final stage of the effects of intoxication.
The two applications are reported as alternative lexical uses.
- Lane · entry 20039
خَمْرَة
The odor of perfume or another sweet, penetrating scent.
The sense may describe an odor that has entered or affected a person.
- Lane · entry 20040
خُمْرَة
A cosmetic or perfume preparation applied to the face to beautify its complexion.
The preparation may include ورس or other perfumes.
- Lane · entry 20041
خُمْرَة
Pain, headache, annoyance, or the remaining intoxication caused by wine.
The sense includes the after-effects or remainder of intoxication, called خُمَار.
- Lane · entry 20041
خُمْرَة
A small pot or jar, or a vessel used for leaven.
- Lane · entry 20041
خُمْرَة
A small woven mat used for prostration in prayer.
It is explained as a mat that veils the ground from the worshipper's face, or whose underlying threads are hidden by palm leaves.
- Lane · entry 20041
خِمْرَة
The act or manner of hiding or concealing oneself.
- Lane · entry 20042
خِمْرَة
A manner or style of wearing a خِمَار.
It also occurs in a proverb about an experienced person who needs no instruction.
- Lane · entry 20042
خَمْرِيّ
Grapes suitable for making wine.
- Lane · entry 20044
خَمْرِيّ
A color resembling the color of wine.
- Lane · entry 20044
خِمَار
Any covering or object by which a thing is veiled or covered.
This is the broader Classical sense alongside the specifically lexicalized sense of a head-covering.
- Lane · entry 20048
خِمَار
A man's turban or head-wrap.
The sense is extended from the head-covering worn by a woman; it also occurs in an idiom asking what has changed someone or what has befallen him.
- Lane · entry 20048
خَمِير
Leavened, fermented, or matured; applied especially to dough and to bread.
It may describe dough into which leaven has been put, dough left to mature, leavened bread, or bread kept overnight.
- Lane · entry 20049
خَمِير
Leaven or ferment, including a substance added to dough, a beverage, perfume, or milk.
The term may refer to the fermenting material itself, including the dregs or ferment of a beverage and the starter used to curdle milk.
- Lane · entry 20049
خَمِير
A concealed secret held in the mind.
Occurs in idiomatic expressions for concealing or revealing a secret.
- Lane · entry 20049
خَمَّار
A vintner or seller of wine.
- Lane · entry 20051
خِمِّير
A habitual or heavy drinker of wine.
- Lane · entry 20052
مُخَمَّر
An animal, especially a horse, ewe, goat, or mare, with a white head contrasting with the rest of its coloring.
The terminology is explained by comparison with a woman's head-covering.
- Lane · entry 20053
مُخَمِّر
A maker of wine.
- Lane · entry 20054
مَخْمُور
A person affected by the remains of intoxication.
- Lane · entry 20055
مُسْتَخْمَر
A partner or associate.
A Himyarite usage recorded as divergent from the principal root development.
- Maqāyīs · row 1643
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The lexical scope of خَمْر varies in Classical usage: some authorities restrict it to particular wines, while others apply it to any intoxicating beverage.
In 12:36, the expression involving خَمْر is explicitly interpreted either as pressing wine or as pressing grapes; both Quran-attested readings are represented separately.