Quranic root
خنق
kh · n · q
A root orientation of constriction or narrowing, especially restriction at the throat or in a passage.
The semantic field extends from physically choking or strangling to narrow passages, things encircling the neck, and figurative constraint or distress.
- Maqāyīs · row 1660
- Lane · entry 20197
- Lane · entry 20212
- Lane · entry 20216
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 1
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
مُنْخَنِقٌ
munkhaniqun
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- 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.
That which has been strangled to death.
In the Quran, the feminine form مُنْخَنِقَة refers to an animal that died by strangulation, not merely one that was choked.
- Mufradāt · row 441
- Lane · entry 20218
Selected Quran examples
Quran 5:3word 12
“and that which is strangled (to death)”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 5:3وَٱلْمُنْخَنِقَةُand that which is strangled (to death)
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 25 Classical meanings
خَنَقَ
To throttle, strangle, or choke by compressing the throat.
The action may or may not result in death; the verb is also applied to a disease in the throat or to food that obstructs or chokes.
- Lane · entry 20197
خَنَقَ
To choke or be impeded through weeping or sobbing.
A figurative application in which tears or sobs are portrayed as throttling someone.
- Lane · entry 20197
خُنَاقِيَّةٌ
A disease or morbid wind affecting the throat, or the head and throat, and causing choking.
The term is applied to people, horses, birds, and similar animals in the supplied lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 20197
- Lane · entry 20208
خَنَقَ
To postpone or defer a time and thereby make it constrained.
Used especially of delaying the time of prayer until the available time is straitened.
- Lane · entry 20197
خَنَّقَ
Of a mirage, to nearly cover the heads of mountains.
A figurative Form II use describing the apparent encroachment of the mirage.
- Lane · entry 20198
خَنَّقَ
To fill or fill up a vessel or watering-trough.
A figurative Form II construction referring to filling the container to its capacity.
- Lane · entry 20198
خَنَّقَ
To nearly attain the age of forty.
A figurative Form II use said of a person approaching that age.
- Lane · entry 20198
اِخْتَنَقَ
To become throttled, strangled, or choked; to compress the throat upon oneself.
The construction may describe an animal becoming choked by itself or a person compressing the strangling cord or throat upon himself.
- Lane · entry 20200
خُنِاقٌ
Quinsy or a related throat disease that prevents the passage of breath to the lungs and heart.
A medical disease term, distinct from the general verb for strangling.
- Lane · entry 20204
خِنَاقٌ
A cord, bowstring, or similar implement with which one is strangled.
The noun denotes the physical means used around the throat and may be used metaphorically as well.
- Lane · entry 20205
خِنَاقٌ
A narrow vulva.
The supplied lexical evidence explicitly uses the term for the vulvas of women.
- Lane · entry 20205
خَنَّاقٌ
A person who sells fish caught with a strangling snare.
An occupational designation associated with the snare called خَنَّاقَة.
- Lane · entry 20209
خَنَّاقَةٌ
A snare used to catch beasts of prey by the throat, or to catch fish.
The term is applied both to animal snares and to a fish-catching device.
- Lane · entry 20211
خَانِقٌ
One who strangles, or one whose office is to strangle.
A personal or occupational agent noun.
- Lane · entry 20212
خَانِقٌ
A name for certain poisonous herbs, including plants called the wolf-strangler or leopard-strangler.
These are conventional plant names, not descriptions of a person who strangles.
- Lane · entry 20212
خَانِقٌ
A narrow road, ravine, or pass, including a narrow place between mountains or tracts of sand.
In the dialect of Yemen, the term is also used for a narrow street.
- Lane · entry 20212
خَانَقَاهٌ
A convent or retreat inhabited by religious recluses, righteous men, or Sufis.
A post-classical Arabic loanword referring to a religious institution.
- Lane · entry 20213
خَانَقَاهِيٌّ
A man belonging to or associated with a خَانَقَاه.
A relational adjective derived from the institutional noun.
- Lane · entry 20214
مِخْنَقَةٌ
A necklace or collar that surrounds the neck.
The object is named for its position against the throat or neck.
- Lane · entry 20216
مُخَنَّقٌ
Slender or narrow at the waist.
Used in the descriptive expression مُخَنَّقُ الخَصْرِ.
- Lane · entry 20217
مُخَنَّقٌ
The part of the neck where a strangling cord lies; the throat.
Used in expressions for seizing or reaching someone by the throat.
- Lane · entry 20217
خِنَاقٌ / مُخَنَّقٌ / مَخْنُوقٌ
Figuratively, a state of constraint, straitness, or severe distress; to constrain or distress someone.
Used in idioms for being in straitness, being seized by the throat, freeing oneself from difficulty, or an affair reaching a distressing pitch.
- Lane · entry 20205
- Lane · entry 20217
- Lane · entry 20218
مَخْنُوقٌ
A person or animal that has been throttled, strangled, or choked.
The state need not imply that death resulted; the term can also describe an animal that became choked by itself.
- Lane · entry 20218
مُخْتَنَقٌ
A narrow place or pass.
A spatial noun in the same broad field of constriction as a narrow ravine or passage.
- Lane · entry 20219
مُخْتَنِقٌ
A horse whose blaze extends over the jaws to the roots of the ears.
A specialized equine descriptive term.
- Lane · entry 20220
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form is a feminine occurrence of the normalized active-participle citation form and is specifically explained as an animal that died by strangulation; broader Classical uses of choking or constraint are not equivalent to that Quranic sense.