Quranic root
زهر
z · h · r
The root centers on beauty, radiance, brightness, and clarity.
Its lexical branches extend from shining and bright appearance to flowers, luminous celestial bodies, whiteness, and beauty. Classical sources also record divergent extensions involving safeguarding or taking care of something, as well as the musical instrument mizhar.
- Maqāyīs · row 2307
- 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.
زَهْرَةٌ
zahrahun
- Part of speech
- 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.
The beauty, splendour, adornment, and pleasant material goods of worldly life.
Used in the Quranic expression زَهْرَةُ الدُّنْيَا; here the word denotes worldly attractiveness and its enjoyments rather than a literal flower.
- Lane · entry 31774
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:131word 10
“(the) splendor”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 20:131زَهْرَةَ(the) splendor
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 32 Classical meanings
زَهَرَ
To shine, glisten, give light, or be clear and luminous.
Used of such things as stars, the moon, lamps, fire, the sun, and the face.
- Lane · entry 31768
زَهَرَ الزَّنْدُ
For a fire-producing stick or piece of wood, to emit bright or shining fire.
A specialized use of the verb with a fire-making stick or wood.
- Lane · entry 31768
زَهَرَتْ بِكَ نَارِي / أَزْهَرْتَ زَنْدِي
Through someone, to have one’s need fulfilled or one’s want accomplished.
An idiomatic expression based on the imagery of a fire becoming strong or abundant; the two cited constructions express this figurative sense.
- Lane · entry 31768
- Lane · entry 31769
زَهَرَ / زَهِرَ / زَهُرَ
To become white, fair, beautiful, or of a bright and shining colour.
The sources record several vocalic forms and describe both whiteness or fairness and bright appearance.
- Lane · entry 31768
زَهَرَتِ الشَّمْسُ الإِبِلَ
For the sun, to alter or affect the camels.
A specialized transitive construction recorded separately from the ordinary sense of shining.
- Lane · entry 31768
أَزْهَرَ
To make a fire or lamp give light, shine, or shine brightly.
Form IV causative usage.
- Lane · entry 31769
أَزْهَرَ
For a plant or herbage, to flower or blossom; for land, to abound in flowers.
Form IV flowering and land-abundance uses.
- Lane · entry 31769
اِزْدَهَرَ بِهِ / اِزْدَهِرْ بِهِ
To take care of, be mindful of, take charge of, or apply oneself energetically to something; in a reported usage, to rejoice in it and become bright-faced through it.
The sources preserve several closely related interpretations of the Form VIII construction, including care, charge, energetic attention, and rejoicing.
- Lane · entry 31769
- Lane · entry 31770
زَهْرٌ / زَهْرَةٌ
A flower or blossom; زَهْرٌ may be used collectively or plurally, with زَهْرَةٌ as the singular or individual flower.
The evidence includes yellow blossoms and open blossoms; an unopened flower is distinguished as a bud. A reported extension applies the term to a plant itself, though that usage is disputed.
- Lane · entry 31772
زِهْرٌ
A want or desired object; in an idiomatic phrase, the portion of one’s want obtained from someone or something.
Distinct from زَهْرٌ “flower”; the source illustrates it in a phrase meaning that one’s want was obtained.
- Lane · entry 31773
زُهْرَةٌ
Whiteness, fairness, beauty, bright whiteness, or a shining colour.
The sources include bright or fair appearance and, in one report, fairness associated with good birth.
- Lane · entry 31775
الزُّهَرَةُ
The planet Venus, a well-known white and brilliant star.
A conventional astronomical designation.
- Lane · entry 31777
زَاهِرٌ
For a fire-producing stick, emitting bright or shining fire.
A specialized adjectival use referring to the fire produced by a firestick.
- Lane · entry 31778
زَاهِرٌ
Shining; by extension, beautiful when applied to a plant and bright or shining when applied to a person’s complexion.
The cited applications describe appearance and do not impose a broader restriction on the kinds of objects that may be characterized as bright or beautiful.
- Lane · entry 31778
زَاهِرٌ
Intensely red.
Recorded in the expression أَحْمَرُ زَاهِرٌ.
- Lane · entry 31778
دَوْلَةٌ زَاهِرَةٌ
Brilliant or prosperous in fortune.
A figurative expression for a person’s or group’s favourable turn of fortune.
- Lane · entry 31778
الزَّاهِرِيَّةَ
An elegant, proud, self-conceited gait involving an inclination of the body from side to side.
A conventional expression for a particular manner of walking.
- Lane · entry 31779
أَزْهَرُ
Shining, giving light, or bright; al-Azhar can denote the moon, and al-Azharān the sun and the moon together.
Includes both the ordinary adjective and conventional celestial designations.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ / زَهْرَاءُ
White, fair, beautiful, or brightly shining; applied in the sources to a face, an animal, a plant, a lightning-lit white cloud, and a clear white pearl.
These are conventional applications of the brightness and whiteness branch, including the feminine form زَهْرَاءُ.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ
Bright and clear when applied to water.
The source marks this application as an apparent or inferred use.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ
A term for white or whitened flour.
Reported as equivalent to حُوَّارَى; the underlying textual form is described as uncertain.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ / زَهْرَاءُ
A wild bull; the feminine form can denote a wild cow.
A conventional animal designation recorded as an extension of the adjective.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ
A white lion.
A conventional zoological description or designation.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ
A white ewer or jug in which wine is made.
A specialized nominal application.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ
Milk just drawn.
A conventional application associated with its fresh, bright appearance.
- Lane · entry 31780
الزُّهَرُ
The three nights at the beginning of the lunar month.
A conventional calendrical designation; another report gives a closely related form.
- Lane · entry 31780
اليَوْمُ الأَزْهَرُ
Friday.
A conventional designation meaning “the bright or splendid day.”
- Lane · entry 31780
الزَّهْرَاوَانِ
The two Quranic chapters al-Baqarah and Āl ʿImrān.
A conventional designation for the pair of chapters, distinct from the Quranic noun زَهْرَةٌ in the supplied QAC occurrence.
- Lane · entry 31780
أَزْهَرُ
A camel that spreads its legs while cropping or browsing trees.
A specialized animal description recorded separately from the brightness-related uses.
- Lane · entry 31780
مِزْهَرٌ
A musical instrument, especially a lute played by plucking or striking its strings.
Plural مَزَاهِرُ.
- Lane · entry 31781
مِزْهَرٌ
A person who keeps a fire bright and turns or tends it so that it does not go out, especially to attract guests.
A separate agent-noun use from the musical instrument.
- Lane · entry 31781
مَزْهُورٌ
Made to shine; also shining, especially said of a lamp or the moon.
A passive-participial or descriptive use associated with Form IV causation.
- Lane · entry 31782
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic occurrence is the accusative surface form زَهْرَةَ in زهرة الدنيا; the public headword is normalized to the citation form زَهْرَةٌ.
Several rare applications in the Classical evidence are explicitly reported, qualified, or disputed; those qualifications are retained in the relevant usage conditions.
Unassigned or ambiguous evidence
The packet integrity metadata reports 48 Lane primary source_units, but the supplied entry arrays enumerate 45 distinct unit_ids. All 45 supplied units are included in the coverage ledger; three additional units cannot be identified from the packet.