Quran Root Words > Root n-w-s
The Arabic root ن و س (n-w-s) occurs 241 times in the Quran, and every one of those occurrences is the same word: نَاس (nās). It is number 39 of the 1,642 roots in the Quranic Arabic Corpus by frequency.
What the root n-w-s 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 نَاس (nās) as "the people".
The middle letter of n-w-s 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. The Quran's only word from this root is نَاس (nās).
Every word from the root n-w-s in the Quran
The Quran uses one word from n-w-s. The table gives its spelling as the corpus writes it, its type, its meaning and its count. The Quran uses no verb from n-w-s: all 241 occurrences are nouns, adjectives or participles.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Word type | Meaning | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| نَاس | nās | Noun | "the people" | 241 |
| ن و س | n-w-s | All words from n-w-s | 241 |
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 this count, the root total of 241, with the corpus's own dictionary entry for n-w-s, and it matches.
The root n-w-s in the verses of the Quran
Words from n-w-s appear in 225 verses spread over 53 of the Quran's 114 suras. Sura 2 has the most of them, 36 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.
نَاس (nās), 241 times
مَلِكِ ٱلنَّاسِ
Quran 114:2; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(of) mankind"
إِلَٰهِ ٱلنَّاسِ
Quran 114:3; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "(of) mankind"
مِنَ ٱلْجِنَّةِ وَٱلنَّاسِ
Quran 114:6; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "and men"
Learning the words of n-w-s
نَاس (nās), no. 49 with 241, is on our list of the 100 most common Quran words, which counts it the same way. The root n-w-s 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-s used in the Quran?
241 times, always as the same word, نَاس (nās), according to the Quranic Arabic Corpus.
What does the Arabic root ن و س (n-w-s) 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 نَاس (nās) as "the people". The root gives the Quran one word only.
Does the Quran use a verb from the root n-w-s?
No. All 241 occurrences of n-w-s in the Quran are nouns, adjectives or participles; the most frequent is نَاس (nās).