Quran Root Words > Root ʿ-m-l
The Arabic root ع م ل (ʿ-m-l) occurs 360 times in the Quran, in 4 different words, and is number 19 of the Quran's 1,642 roots by frequency. The most frequent word is عَمِلَ (ʿamila), 276 times, followed by عَمَل (ʿamal), 71 times.
What the root ʿ-m-l means
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses the root's form I verb عَمِلَ (ʿamila) as "to do, to work".
All three letters of ʿ-m-l, ع م ل, are consonants with no weak letter among them, and every word the Quran builds on the root keeps all three in the same order. In عَمِلَ (ʿamila) and عَمَل (ʿamal) only the vowels and the added letters differ.
Every word from the root ʿ-m-l in the Quran
The Quran builds 4 different words on ʿ-m-l. The table lists them from most to least frequent, with the spelling the corpus gives each one, its word type, its meaning and its number of occurrences. One verb, عَمِلَ (ʿamila), accounts for 276 of the root's 360 occurrences.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Word type | Meaning | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| عَمِلَ | ʿamila | Verb (form I) | to do, to work | 276 |
| عَمَل | ʿamal | Noun | "deed" | 71 |
| عَٰمِل | ʿāmil | Active participle | "working" | 12 |
| عَامِلَة | ʿāmila | Active participle | "laboring" | 1 |
| ع م ل | ʿ-m-l | All words from ʿ-m-l | 360 |
Meanings in quotation marks are MASAQ word-by-word glosses, the others the corpus dictionary's, and the word types follow the dictionary. The Arabic is the corpus's, in the Quran's own spelling, so عَٰمِل (ʿāmil) keeps its small dagger alif. Every count on this page is a lemma count from the Quranic Arabic Corpus, version 0.4. We compared each of these 4 counts, and the root total of 360, with the corpus's own dictionary entry for ʿ-m-l, and all of them match.
The root ʿ-m-l in the verses of the Quran
Words from ʿ-m-l appear in 313 verses spread over 68 of the Quran's 114 suras. Sura 2 has the most of them, 22 verses. Below are the shortest verses in which the root's most frequent words occur, with the word marked. The text is the Uthmani text of Tanzil, and each reference opens the verse on quran.com with translations.
عَمِلَ (ʿamila), 276 times
عَمَّا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Quran 15:93; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "do"
وَٱللَّهُ خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
Quran 37:96; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "you make"
جَزَآءًۢ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Quran 56:24; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "do"
عَمَل (ʿamal), 71 times
قَالَ إِنِّى لِعَمَلِكُم مِّنَ ٱلْقَالِينَ
Quran 26:168; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(of) your deed"
قُلْ هَلْ نُنَبِّئُكُم بِٱلْأَخْسَرِينَ أَعْمَٰلًا
Quran 18:103; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(as to their) deeds"
عَٰمِل (ʿāmil), 12 times
لِمِثْلِ هَٰذَا فَلْيَعْمَلِ ٱلْعَٰمِلُونَ
Quran 37:61; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "the workers"
قُلْ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْمَلُوا۟ عَلَىٰ مَكَانَتِكُمْ إِنِّى عَٰمِلٌ ۖ فَسَوْفَ تَعْلَمُونَ
Quran 39:39; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "working;"
Learning the words of ʿ-m-l
عَمِلَ (ʿamila), no. 41 with 276, is on our list of the 100 most common Quran words, which counts it the same way. Its verb follows the pattern of form I, and our Arabic verb conjugator conjugates any root in any form, so you can see how عَمِلَ changes for person and tense. Our full conjugation of ʿamila sets out every person and tense of عَمِلَ. The root ʿ-m-l is one of the 1,642 roots you can search in our Quran root word explorer; for the rest of the language, see our Arabic learning resources by level.
Frequently asked questions
How many times is the root ʿ-m-l used in the Quran?
360 times, in 4 different words, according to the Quranic Arabic Corpus. The most frequent is عَمِلَ (ʿamila), which occurs 276 times.
What does the Arabic root ع م ل (ʿ-m-l) mean?
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses the root's form I verb عَمِلَ (ʿamila) as "to do, to work". The root gives the Quran 4 words in all.
Which verb forms of ʿ-m-l are used in the Quran?
Only form I: عَمِلَ (ʿamila), 276 times. That verb accounts for 276 of the root's 360 occurrences.