Quranic root
زجر
z · j · r
The root centers on forceful rebuke or a cry that drives, turns, or holds someone or something back.
From vocal admonition and repulsion, the root extends to driving or urging onward, the cry or act by which this is done, deterrence, and specialized uses such as augury.
- Maqāyīs · row 2221
- Lane · entry 30897
- Mufradāt · row 612
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 6
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
اِزْدَجَرَ
āizdajara
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form VIII
- Form
- VIII
- 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.
To be driven away or repelled.
In the Quranic passive construction, the subject is portrayed as driven away by a dismissive cry or similar act of expulsion.
- Lane · entry 30899
- Mufradāt · row 612
Selected Quran examples
Quran 54:9word 9
“and he was repelled”
مُزْدَجَر
muzdajar
- Part of speech
- Passive participle (substantivized)
- 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 deterrent or means of driving away and preventing, especially from committing sinful acts.
The Quranic use is also interpreted as prevention from punishment; the form is treated lexically as a noun of deterrence despite its QAC participial morphology.
- Lane · entry 30912
- Mufradāt · row 612
Selected Quran examples
Quran 54:4word 7
“(is) deterrence”
A threat or warning intended to deter.
This is an alternative interpretation of the Quranic construction in which the form denotes a warning held out against wrongdoing.
- Lane · entry 30912
زَجْر
zajr
- 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.
Driving or urging, especially by a forceful cry.
In the Quranic construction at 37:2, it denotes the driving or urging associated with the preceding active participle, traditionally understood as the driving of clouds.
- Lane · entry 30901
- Lane · entry 30897
- Mufradāt · row 612
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:2word 2
“strongly”
زَجْرَة
zajrah
- 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 single cry or shout.
The Quranic occurrences describe a single resounding cry associated with the sudden occurrence of resurrection.
- Lane · entry 30903
- Mufradāt · row 612
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:19word 3
“(will be) a cry”
Quran 79:13word 3
“(will be) a shout”
زَاجِرَة
zājirah
- 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.
One who drives or urges; in the Quranic plural, a driver of the clouds.
The Quranic feminine plural is interpreted as the angels who drive the clouds.
- Lane · entry 30906
- Mufradāt · row 612
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:2word 1
“And those who drive”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 37:2فَٱلزَّٰجِرَٰتِAnd those who drive
- 37:2زَجْرًۭاstrongly
- 37:19زَجْرَةٌۭ(will be) a cry
- 54:4مُزْدَجَرٌ(is) deterrence
- 54:9وَٱزْدُجِرَand he was repelled
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 18 Classical meanings
زَجَرَ
To chide, reprove, check, restrain, forbid, or prevent someone from an act, by rough speech, a voice, or a cry.
The construction commonly takes عَنْ for the act or thing from which someone is restrained; it can also be directed at an animal by a cry to make it refrain.
- Lane · entry 30897
زَجَرَ
To drive or urge an animal or other thing onward by a characteristic cry; of the wind, to drive clouds.
The evidence includes urging camels, sheep, horses, and beasts of prey, as well as the figurative expression of wind driving clouds.
- Lane · entry 30897
زَجْر
A cry or act of crying out, especially one used to chide, drive, or urge; by extension, the driving away effected by it.
This is the nominal expression for the cry or driving action and includes cries directed at animals.
- Lane · entry 30897
- Lane · entry 30901
زَجَرَ / زَجْر
To augur or divine from birds or other omens; divination based on their flight, landing, cries, kinds, or names.
The usage belongs to the traditional practice of interpreting auspicious or inauspicious signs.
- Lane · entry 30897
زَجَرَ
To go away or depart in the idiom زَجَرَ غُرَابَ البَيْنِ.
This is an idiomatic expression associated with the crow of separation.
- Lane · entry 30897
زَجَرَتْ
Of a she-camel, to cast forth what was in her belly.
The supplied lexical evidence records this as a specialized usage of the verb.
- Lane · entry 30897
تَزَاجَرَ
To mutually chide, restrain, prevent, or forbid one another.
The cited construction is used of mutual restraint from evil or reprehensible conduct.
- Lane · entry 30898
اِنْزَجَرَ
To be chided, checked, restrained, or forbidden and consequently refrain or abstain.
The construction takes عَنْ for the act from which one refrains.
- Lane · entry 30899
اِنْزَجَرَ
To become urged or incited by a cry to pursue game.
The evidence illustrates the usage with an animal responding to a driving cry.
- Lane · entry 30899
زَجَر
A species of large fish with small scales.
This regional or attributed term is reported with doubt as to its genuineness in Arabic.
- Lane · entry 30902
زَجُور
A she-camel with reluctant or abnormal nursing behavior, requiring chastisement to yield milk or rejecting or misdirecting acceptance of young.
The term is also reported metaphorically as an epithet for war, though the precise figurative nuance is not specified.
- Lane · entry 30904
زَاجِر
One who chides, checks, restrains, or forbids.
The related intensive form زَجَّار denotes one who performs this frequently or to a marked degree. The expression كَفَى بِالقُرْآنِ زَاجِرًا applies the term to the Quran as a restraining or forbidding influence.
- Lane · entry 30905
- Lane · entry 30906
زَاجِر
An exhorter or inward restraining influence that invites a believer toward the truth.
The evidence describes this as an influence in the heart rather than an external cry.
- Lane · entry 30906
زَاجِر
A diviner or interpreter of omens.
The term is connected with crying out against an undertaking judged to be inauspicious; أَبُو زَاجِر is also an epithet for the crow in this augury-related usage.
- Lane · entry 30906
زَاجِرَة
A chiding, restraining, or exhortatory speech.
The feminine substantive occurs in the plural alongside مواعظ for repeated admonitions.
- Lane · entry 30907
أَزْجَر
A camel with looseness, sores, or a fracture affecting the vertebrae of its back.
This is a specialized anatomical or veterinary adjective.
- Lane · entry 30909
مَزْجَر
A place of chiding, driving away, or similar restraint.
The idiom هُوَ مِنِّي مَزْجَرَ الكَلْبِ portrays someone as being in a position where he may be chided and driven away like a dog.
- Lane · entry 30910
مَزْجَرَة
A cause or means of chiding, driving away, or preventing.
The term can denote a deterrent cause, including remembrance of God as a means of driving away the devil.
- Lane · entry 30911
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
For مُزْدَجَر, QAC marks the occurrence as a passive participle, while the lexical evidence also treats it as an infinitive noun and records alternative interpretations.
The lexical evidence reports an alternative reading مَزَّجَر for مُزْدَجَر; the public form follows the canonical QAC identification.
Historical Quran citation notation in the lexical evidence was not converted directly into modern verse locations; the displayed modern locations are the independently supplied QAC locations.