Quranic root
زمر
z · m · r
The root has two principal semantic directions: scarcity or deficiency, and kinds of sound. The group-word زُمْرَةٌ is associated with the sound or commotion of a gathered company.
The scarcity branch includes scant hair, deficient manliness, and reduced property; the sound branch includes animal cries, reed music, singing, and the figurative association of a gathered group with noise or commotion.
- Maqāyīs · row 2291
- Mufradāt · row 629
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
زُمْرَةٌ
zumrahun
- 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 group, company, or party of people; especially a small gathered group.
The Quran attests the plural زُمَرًا, used of people proceeding or being admitted in groups toward a destination.
- Lane · entry 31557
- Mufradāt · row 629
Selected Quran examples
Quran 39:71word 6
“(in) groups”
Quran 39:73word 7
“(in) groups”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 24 Classical meanings
زَمَرَ
To play a reed instrument or blow into a reed pipe.
A Form I verb of reed-playing or piping.
- Lane · entry 31552
زَمَرَ
Of an ostrich: to cry or utter its call.
This usage is explicitly applied to the female ostrich or ostriches.
- Lane · entry 31552
زَمَرَ
To publish or divulge a story.
Used with بِـ in the construction زَمَرَ بِالْحَدِيثِ.
- Lane · entry 31552
زَمَرَ
To excite or incite one person against another.
Used in the reciprocal construction زَمَرَ فُلَانًا بِفُلَانٍ.
- Lane · entry 31552
زَمِرَ
To be scant in hair or wool; figuratively, to have little manliness or for one's property to become scant.
These are Form I usages of the verb, including the figurative extensions to manliness and property.
- Lane · entry 31552
زَمِرٌ
Having little hair or wool; figuratively deficient in manliness, scant in property, or describing a small or scanty gift.
The adjective applies to people, animals, hair or wool, property, and— in feminine agreement— a gift, as explicitly attested by the lexical examples.
- Lane · entry 31556
زَمِرٌ
Good at singing.
An adjectival use describing vocal quality or singing ability.
- Lane · entry 31556
زَمِرٌ
Goodly or pleasing in countenance.
An adjectival use describing appearance.
- Lane · entry 31556
زُمْرَةٌ
A company or congregated body of people; also a party arriving in succession or in a dispersed formation.
The plural is زُمَرٌ. The Quranic group sense is listed separately above.
- Lane · entry 31557
زَمِيرٌ
Short, especially when applied to a man.
An adjectival description of bodily stature.
- Lane · entry 31559
زَمِيرٌ
Beautiful or handsome.
Explicitly applied to a boy or young man in the cited lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 31559
زِمَارَةٌ
The act or art of playing a reed instrument.
A verbal noun for piping or reed-playing.
- Lane · entry 31560
زَمَّارٌ
A piper or player of a reed instrument.
A professional or habitual agent noun; the feminine forms are separately discussed in the lexical evidence.
- Lane · entry 31561
زَمَّارَةٌ
A fornicatress or adulteress.
In the cited traditional usage, the term is explained as referring to a woman who publicly signals or advertises her sexual availability.
- Lane · entry 31561
زَمَّارَةٌ
A female singer.
An alternative interpretation of the traditional expression concerning the gain of a زَمَّارَةٌ; the lexical evidence treats this interpretation as disputed.
- Lane · entry 31561
زَمَّارَةٌ
A musical reed or pipe.
A noun equivalent in meaning to مِزْمَارٌ.
- Lane · entry 31562
زَمَّارَةٌ
A collar placed around a dog's neck; by extension, a neck-and-hand shackle, including the iron bar between its rings.
The shackle and connecting bar are metaphorical or extended applications of the collar term.
- Lane · entry 31562
زَمَّارَةٌ
A female ostrich.
An independent nominal use, distinct from the verb meaning to utter an ostrich's call.
- Lane · entry 31562
زَوْمَرٌ
Playing, or a player.
The evidence records both the activity and the person associated with it.
- Lane · entry 31564
مُزَمَّرٌ
Shackled with a collar or restraint called a زَمَّارَةٌ.
A passive participial description of one subjected to such restraint.
- Lane · entry 31565
مِزْمَارٌ
A musical reed, pipe, or flute.
A concrete instrument used for producing melody or sound.
- Lane · entry 31566
مِزْمَارٌ
The Psalms or sung recitations associated with David; figuratively, exceptionally sweet vocal recitation, and in one interpretation, kinds of prayer or supplication.
These meanings occur in the conventional expression مَزَامِيرُ دَاوُودَ and include variant explanations of that expression.
- Lane · entry 31566
اِسْتَزْمَرَ
To become abject, ignominious, weak, small in body, and lean.
A Form X verb describing abasement or being brought low.
- Lane · entry 31554
مُسْتَزْمِرٌ
Shrinking and abject or ignominious in one's own estimation.
An active participial description of a person experiencing self-abasement or diminution.
- Lane · entry 31568
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic form is the plural زُمَرًا; the public headword uses the normalized singular زُمْرَةٌ.
The traditional use of زَمَّارَةٌ is disputed between the meaning 'fornicatress or adulteress' and an alternative interpretation 'female singer'; both reported lexical branches are retained.