Quran Root Words > Root n-w-r
The Arabic root ن و ر (n-w-r) occurs 194 times in the Quran, in 3 different words, and is number 50 of the Quran's 1,642 roots by frequency. The most frequent word is نَار (nār), 145 times, followed by نُور (nūr), 43 times.
What the root n-w-r means
The corpus dictionary gives no gloss for this root's words, so the meaning here comes from the word-by-word glosses of the MASAQ dataset, which most often render نَار (nār) as "fire".
The middle letter of n-w-r is the weak letter و. In a root like this, called hollow, the middle letter is often not written as a consonant and turns into a long vowel instead. Compare the root's words نَار (nār) and نُور (nūr).
Every word from the root n-w-r in the Quran
The Quran builds 3 different words on n-w-r. 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. The Quran uses no verb from n-w-r: all 194 occurrences are nouns, adjectives or participles.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Word type | Meaning | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| نَار | nār | Noun | "fire" | 145 |
| نُور | nūr | Noun | "a light" | 43 |
| مُنِير | munīr | Active participle (form IV) | "enlightening" | 6 |
| ن و ر | n-w-r | All words from n-w-r | 194 |
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 3 counts, and the root total of 194, with the corpus's own dictionary entry for n-w-r, and all of them match.
The root n-w-r in the verses of the Quran
Words from n-w-r appear in 174 verses spread over 62 of the Quran's 114 suras. Sura 2 has the most of them, 15 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.
نَار (nār), 145 times
نَارٌ حَامِيَةٌۢ
Quran 101:11; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "a fire"
ٱلنَّارِ ذَاتِ ٱلْوَقُودِ
Quran 85:5; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(of) the fire"
نَارُ ٱللَّهِ ٱلْمُوقَدَةُ
Quran 104:6; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "a fire"
نُور (nūr), 43 times
وَلَا ٱلظُّلُمَٰتُ وَلَا ٱلنُّورُ
Quran 35:20; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "[the] light"
وَجَعَلَ ٱلْقَمَرَ فِيهِنَّ نُورًا وَجَعَلَ ٱلشَّمْسَ سِرَاجًا
Quran 71:16; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "a light"
مُنِير (munīr), 6 times
وَدَاعِيًا إِلَى ٱللَّهِ بِإِذْنِهِۦ وَسِرَاجًا مُّنِيرًا
Quran 33:46; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "illuminating"
وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يُجَٰدِلُ فِى ٱللَّهِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ وَلَا هُدًى وَلَا كِتَٰبٍ مُّنِيرٍ
Quran 22:8; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "enlightening"
Names of God from the root n-w-r
One of the 99 names of God in the enumeration of at-Tirmidhi is built on n-w-r. Our table of the 99 names of Allah with their roots lists all of them, each with an everyday word from the same root.
- 93. النُّورُ An-Nur, The Light
Learning the words of n-w-r
نَار (nār), no. 74 with 145, is on our list of the 100 most common Quran words, which counts it the same way. The root n-w-r 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 n-w-r used in the Quran?
194 times, in 3 different words, according to the Quranic Arabic Corpus. The most frequent is نَار (nār), which occurs 145 times.
What does the Arabic root ن و ر (n-w-r) mean?
The corpus dictionary gives no gloss for this root's words, so the meaning here comes from the word-by-word glosses of the MASAQ dataset, which most often render نَار (nār) as "fire". The root gives the Quran 3 words in all.
Does the Quran use a verb from the root n-w-r?
No. All 194 occurrences of n-w-r in the Quran are nouns, adjectives or participles; the most frequent is نَار (nār).