Quranic root
زعم
z · ʿ · m
The root has two principal semantic orientations: making an assertion without certainty, and undertaking responsibility or guarantee.
The first orientation develops into doubtful report, supposition, false assertion, and related expressions; the second develops into guaranteeing, responsibility, leadership, and rank.
- Maqāyīs · row 2251
- Mufradāt · row 621
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 4
- Quran senses
- 17
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
زَعَمَ
zaʿama
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 13 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 assert, say, or report a claim, characteristically one regarded as doubtful or false.
In the Quran, the verb introduces or attributes claims presented in a condemnatory context; the emphasis is on the asserted content rather than on a neutral act of speaking.
- Lane · entry 31235
- Mufradāt · row 621
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:62word 8
“claim”
To hold or believe that something is the case.
This Quranic use expresses a belief or conviction, specifically in the statement attributed to those who deny resurrection.
- Lane · entry 31235
- Mufradāt · row 621
Selected Quran examples
Quran 64:7word 1
“Claim”
زَعِيمٌ
zaʿīmun
- 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 guarantor; one responsible or answerable for something.
The Quranic construction assigns responsibility or guarantee for an object or matter; the term may be understood through the branch of suretyship or responsibility.
- Lane · entry 31247
- Mufradāt · row 621
Selected Quran examples
Quran 12:72word 12
“(is) responsible”
Quran 68:40word 4
“(is) responsible”
زَعْمٌ
zaʿmun
- 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.
An assertion or professed claim, especially one suspected of falsehood.
In the Quranic expression بِزَعْمِهِمْ, the noun denotes an asserted explanation or claim presented with blameworthy or doubtful status.
- Lane · entry 31235
- Mufradāt · row 621
Selected Quran examples
Quran 6:136word 12
“by their claim”
Quran 6:138word 11
“by their claim”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 4:60يَزْعُمُونَclaim
- 6:22تَزْعُمُونَclaim
- 6:94زَعَمْتُمْyou claimed
- 6:94تَزْعُمُونَclaim
- 6:136بِزَعْمِهِمْby their claim
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 39 Classical meanings
زَعَمَ
To describe someone or something.
A separately attested classical transitive use.
- Lane · entry 31235
زَعَمَ
To promise.
A classical use illustrated by an assertion understood as a promise.
- Lane · entry 31235
زَعْمٌ
An opinion or supposition.
Used in expressions such as فِي زَعْمِي, “in my opinion.”
- Lane · entry 31235
زَعَمَ
To think or suppose someone to be a certain way.
Used with a personal object in the sense of regarding or supposing that person to possess a specified quality.
- Lane · entry 31235
زَعَمَ
To bear witness or testify.
A classical use distinct from merely reporting an assertion.
- Lane · entry 31235
زَعَمَ بِهِ
To guarantee, undertake responsibility for, or stand surety for something.
A classical verb construction with بِهِ; the Quranic guarantor noun is treated separately above.
- Lane · entry 31235
زَعَمَ
To become chief, master, prince, or spokesman of a people.
A classical leadership use, including becoming the representative speaker of a group.
- Lane · entry 31235
زَاعَمَ
To jostle or compete with another.
A Form III lexical variant related to زاحم.
- Lane · entry 31236
أَزْعَمَ
To make someone responsible, answerable, or surety for something.
Form IV causative use, especially with property or another specified matter.
- Lane · entry 31237
أَزْعَمَ
To make someone covet or eagerly desire something.
Form IV causative use corresponding to inducing eager desire.
- Lane · entry 31237
أَزْعَمَ
To obey the chief or leader.
A classical use referring to obedience to a زَعِيم.
- Lane · entry 31237
أَزْعَمَ
To become possible, said of an affair.
An intransitive classical use applied to a matter or affair.
- Lane · entry 31237
أَزْعَمَ
To begin to become good, pleasant, or fit to drink, said of milk.
A specialized classical use applied to milk.
- Lane · entry 31237
أَزْعَمَ
To be thought to have fat in the hump, said of a she-camel.
A specialized use attributed in the lexical evidence to a young or full-grown she-camel.
- Lane · entry 31237
أَزْعَمَ
To put forth its first plants or herbage, said of the earth.
A specialized intransitive use applied to land; the source reports a possible textual uncertainty about the form.
- Lane · entry 31237
تَزَعَّمَ
To speak falsely or fabricate assertions.
Form V use equated with false speaking.
- Lane · entry 31238
تَزَاعَمَا
To exchange doubtful assertions or stories and differ over them.
Form VI reciprocal use for disputing or discoursing about reports in which little confidence is placed.
- Lane · entry 31239
تَزَاعَمَ
To become mutually responsible for one another, and hence to league together or aid one another.
A reciprocal responsibility and alliance construction.
- Lane · entry 31239
زُعْمٌ
Pride, pretension, or vain self-assertion.
A later or vulgar use explained as arising from false or vain assertion.
- Lane · entry 31240
زَعَمٌ
Responsibility, answerableness, or suretyship.
A noun associated with the construction زَعَمَ بِهِ.
- Lane · entry 31241
زَعِمٌ
Succulent or gravy-laden, said of roasted meat.
Applied to meat that is rich in grease, gravy, or juice and quickly drips over the fire.
- Lane · entry 31242
زَعْمَةٌ
An assertion or stated claim; in a conventional rejection formula, an assertion judged untrue.
The plural may denote stories or assertions in which no confidence is placed; the form also occurs in formulas rejecting another person's statement.
- Lane · entry 31243
زُعْمِيٌّ
Mendacious; also, in a contrary reported use, veracious.
The lexical evidence explicitly records these two opposite values.
- Lane · entry 31244
زَعُومٌ
A she-camel or sheep or goat whose fatness is uncertain and is tested by touch.
A specialized feminine epithet for an animal whose fatness is in question.
- Lane · entry 31246
زَعُومٌ
Having little fat; also reported in the contrary sense, having much fat.
The evidence explicitly records both opposite applications; related feminine forms are also reported.
- Lane · entry 31246
زَعُومٌ
Impotent or ineffective in speech.
A specialized descriptive use, also reported for زُعْمُومٌ.
- Lane · entry 31246
زَعِيمٌ
A chief, lord, master, prince, or spokesman of a people.
A leadership noun; the spokesman is so called because he speaks on behalf of the group.
- Lane · entry 31247
زَعِيمٌ
Described or characterized.
A distinct adjectival use equivalent to مَوْصُوفٌ.
- Lane · entry 31247
زَعَامَةٌ
High or elevated rank, nobility, chiefdom, lordship, mastery, or princedom.
A classical abstract noun for elevated status or leadership.
- Lane · entry 31248
زَعَامَةٌ
A weapon or weapons.
A specialized lexical use, particularly in the cited inheritance context.
- Lane · entry 31248
زَعَامَةٌ
A coat of mail or coats of mail.
A specialized military use.
- Lane · entry 31248
زَعَامَةٌ
The chief's share of spoil.
A specialized inheritance or distribution term.
- Lane · entry 31248
زَعَامَةٌ
The best or greater portion of property in an inheritance or similar division.
A specialized use for the superior portion of an estate or property.
- Lane · entry 31248
زَعَامَةٌ
An animal of the ox kind, probably a wild bovine.
A specialized zoological noun equivalent to بَقَرَةٌ.
- Lane · entry 31248
مَزْعَمٌ
A thing or affair in which no confidence is placed; a disputed or untenable assertion.
Also used of saying what is not right or asserting what is impossible.
- Lane · entry 31250
مَزْعَمٌ
A thing coveted or eagerly desired.
A noun equivalent to مَطْمَعٌ, “an object of desire.”
- Lane · entry 31250
مُزْعِمٌ
Something that induces coveting or eager desire.
Used in the expression أَمْرٌ مُزْعِمٌ, an affair that makes one desire eagerly.
- Lane · entry 31252
مِزْعَامَةٌ
A serpent.
A specialized zoological noun.
- Lane · entry 31254
زَعِمَ
To covet or eagerly desire.
A classical use of زَعِمَ expressing eager desire; it may be used with فِي for the desired object.
- Lane · entry 31235
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic زَعِيمٌ occurrences are represented in the responsibility or guarantee sense; the separately attested chief or spokesman sense is classical but not assigned to those Quran occurrences.
The Mufradat discussion records an alternative derivational interpretation of زَعِيمٌ through assertion as well as through guarantee; the contextual Quranic sense remains responsibility or guarantee.
Lane's historical Quran citation notation has not been converted into a modern verse location where an independently secure QAC location was unavailable.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
lane-unit:zEm:31255:g1:main: its phrase meaning “one in whom no confidence is placed” is accompanied by an explicit editorial judgment that the expression is probably a mistranscription, so it is retained as ambiguous rather than assigned to مَزْعَمٌ.