Quranic root
زين
z · y · n
An orientation toward the beauty of a thing and making it beautiful; zayn is opposed to shayn, ugliness or defect.
The root extends from beauty and beautification to adornment as an external means or result, attractive presentation or commendation, worldly display, and becoming adorned. These developments belong to particular derived forms and are not interchangeable in every usage.
- Maqāyīs · row 2335
- Mufradāt · row 639
- 3
- Quran-attested forms
- 5
- Quran senses
- 46
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
زَيَّنَ
zayyana
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 26 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 adorn, beautify, decorate, or make the beauty of something apparent.
Used for visible or perceptible beautification of things, places, qualities, or circumstances. The Quran uses both active and passive constructions; the agent may be stated or left unspecified.
- Mufradāt · row 639
Selected Quran examples
Quran 41:12word 11
“And We adorned”
Quran 15:16word 6
“and We have beautified it”
To make something seem attractive, good, or commendable to someone; to commend or present it favorably.
Often constructed with لِ and an intended perceiver. The object may be a deed, desire, belief, or other matter, including something morally bad; the agent may be God, Satan, people, or unspecified.
- Mufradāt · row 639
Selected Quran examples
Quran 49:7word 18
“and has made it pleasing”
Quran 15:39word 5
“surely, I will make (evil) fair-seeming”
اِزَّيَّنَ
āizzayyana
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form V
- Form
- V
- 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 become adorned or beautified; to come into a visibly attractive state.
An intransitive or quasi-reflexive use. In its Quranic occurrence it describes the earth becoming adorned with vegetation.
- Lane · entry 32023
Selected Quran examples
Quran 10:24word 22
“and is beautified”
زِينَةٌ
zīnahun
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 19 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.
Adornment, ornament, or embellishment: something by which a person, thing, place, or scene is made attractive.
May refer to ornaments, clothing, bodily or natural beauty, and valued worldly display such as wealth and children. Quranic contexts include the adornment of the earth, the heavens, people, and worldly life.
- Lane · entry 32030
- Mufradāt · row 639
Selected Quran examples
Quran 37:6word 5
“with an adornment”
Quran 18:46word 3
“(are) adornment”
Quran 24:31word 10
“their adornment”
Quran 57:20word 7
“and adornment”
In the expression يَوْمُ الزِّينَةِ, a festival or holiday, literally a day of adornment.
A conventional expression for a festal day on which people adorn themselves and appear in good clothing.
- Lane · entry 32030
Selected Quran examples
Quran 20:59word 4
“(of) the festival”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:212زُيِّنَBeautified
- 3:14زُيِّنَBeautified
- 6:43وَزَيَّنَand made fair-seeming
- 6:108زَيَّنَّاWe have made fair-seeming
- 6:122زُيِّنَis made fair-seeming
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 9 Classical meanings
زَانَهُ
To adorn or grace a person or thing; by extension, to be an honor or credit, to embellish speech or an action, or to present a commodity favorably.
The commercial use refers to setting off a commodity without concealing a defect or lying in its description.
- Lane · entry 32020
تَزَيَّنَ، اِزَّيَّنَ
To adorn oneself or assume adornment; of language or an action, to be dressed up, embellished, or presented attractively to another.
The reflexive use may also mean investing oneself with something that does not properly belong to oneself, as in assuming a false adornment.
- Lane · entry 32023
زَيْنٌ
Grace, comeliness, beauty, or a creditable quality; anything that is a person's or thing's pride or glory.
May describe physical or intellectual adornment and may function adjectivally in expressions contrasting comeliness with ugliness.
- Lane · entry 32028
زَيْنٌ
The comb of a cock.
A separate concrete lexical use of the noun.
- Lane · entry 32028
زَيَانٌ
Beautiful or comely, as in the expression “a beautiful moon.”
Used as a descriptive epithet.
- Lane · entry 32031
زِيَانَةٌ
The art or occupation of a مُزَيِّن, especially the work of a barber or beautifier.
A professional or occupational noun in later usage.
- Lane · entry 32033
مُزَيَّنٌ
Of a man: having the hair trimmed, clipped, or shaved.
A specialized application referring to grooming by a barber.
- Lane · entry 32035
مُزَيِّنٌ
A cupper; by common extension, a barber or person who grooms and beautifies others.
The word can retain the older association with cupping while commonly denoting a barber.
- Lane · entry 32036
مُتَزَيِّنٌ، مُزْدَانٌ، مُزَيَّنٌ
Adorned, ornamented, beautified, or self-adorned; graced by something.
Participial forms describe a person or thing possessing adornment or appearing graced by an external quality.
- Lane · entry 32040
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Form V Quranic occurrence is an intransitive or quasi-reflexive use meaning ‘become adorned’; it should not be treated as identical in construction to the transitive Form II verb.
زِينَةٌ ranges from concrete ornaments and natural beauty to valued worldly display; the immediate object and construction determine the intended nuance.