Quran Root Words > Root j-ʿ-l
The Arabic root ج ع ل (j-ʿ-l) occurs 346 times in the Quran, in 2 different words, and is number 20 of the Quran's 1,642 roots by frequency. The most frequent word is جَعَلَ (jaʿala), 340 times, followed by جَاعِل (jāʿil), 6 times.
What the root j-ʿ-l means
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses the root's form I verb جَعَلَ (jaʿala) as "to make".
All three letters of j-ʿ-l, ج ع 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 جَعَلَ (jaʿala) and جَاعِل (jāʿil) only the vowels and the added letters differ.
Every word from the root j-ʿ-l in the Quran
The Quran builds 2 different words on j-ʿ-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, جَعَلَ (jaʿala), accounts for 340 of the root's 346 occurrences.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Word type | Meaning | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| جَعَلَ | jaʿala | Verb (form I) | to make | 340 |
| جَاعِل | jāʿil | Active participle | "going to place" | 6 |
| ج ع ل | j-ʿ-l | All words from j-ʿ-l | 346 |
Meanings in quotation marks are MASAQ word-by-word glosses, the others the corpus dictionary's, and the word types follow the dictionary. Every count on this page is a lemma count from the Quranic Arabic Corpus, version 0.4. We compared each of these 2 counts, and the root total of 346, with the corpus's own dictionary entry for j-ʿ-l, and all of them match.
The root j-ʿ-l in the verses of the Quran
Words from j-ʿ-l appear in 311 verses spread over 66 of the Quran's 114 suras. Sura 6 has the most of them, 17 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.
جَعَلَ (jaʿala), 340 times
فَجَعَلْنَٰهُنَّ أَبْكَارًا
Quran 56:36; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "and we have made them"
فَجَعَلَهُۥ غُثَآءً أَحْوَىٰ
Quran 87:5; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "and then makes it"
وَجَعَلْنَا ٱلَّيْلَ لِبَاسًا
Quran 78:10; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "and we made"
جَاعِل (jāʿil), 6 times
وَإِنَّا لَجَٰعِلُونَ مَا عَلَيْهَا صَعِيدًا جُرُزًا
Quran 18:8; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(will) surely make"
۞ وَإِذِ ٱبْتَلَىٰٓ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمَ رَبُّهُۥ بِكَلِمَٰتٍ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّى جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا ۖ قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِى ۖ قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِى ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
Quran 2:124; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(am) the one to make you"
Learning the words of j-ʿ-l
جَعَلَ (jaʿala), no. 30 with 340, 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 جَعَلَ changes for person and tense. The root j-ʿ-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 j-ʿ-l used in the Quran?
346 times, in 2 different words, according to the Quranic Arabic Corpus. The most frequent is جَعَلَ (jaʿala), which occurs 340 times.
What does the Arabic root ج ع ل (j-ʿ-l) mean?
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses the root's form I verb جَعَلَ (jaʿala) as "to make". The root gives the Quran 2 words in all.
Which verb forms of j-ʿ-l are used in the Quran?
Only form I: جَعَلَ (jaʿala), 340 times. That verb accounts for 340 of the root's 346 occurrences.