Quran Root Words > Root sh-y-ʾ
The Arabic root ش ي أ (sh-y-ʾ) occurs 519 times in the Quran, in 2 different words, and is number 11 of the Quran's 1,642 roots by frequency. The most frequent word is شَىْء (shayʾ), 283 times, followed by شَآءَ (shāʾa), 236 times.
What the root sh-y-ʾ means
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses the root's form I verb شَآءَ (shāʾa) as "to will, to wish". In the MASAQ word-by-word glosses, شَىْء (shayʾ) is most often rendered "thing".
The middle letter of sh-y-ʾ is the weak letter ي. 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 شَىْء (shayʾ) and شَآءَ (shāʾa).
One letter of sh-y-ʾ is a hamza, the glottal stop. Arabic writes a hamza on a seat chosen by the vowels around it (أ, إ, ؤ, ئ, or ء on its own); in شَىْء (shayʾ) it is written ء.
Every word from the root sh-y-ʾ in the Quran
The Quran builds 2 different words on sh-y-ʾ. 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, شَآءَ (shāʾa), accounts for 236 of the root's 519 occurrences; the rest are nouns, adjectives and participles.
| Arabic | Transliteration | Word type | Meaning | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| شَىْء | shayʾ | Noun | "thing" | 283 |
| شَآءَ | shāʾa | Verb (form I) | to will, to wish | 236 |
| ش ي أ | sh-y-ʾ | All words from sh-y-ʾ | 519 |
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 519, with the corpus's own dictionary entry for sh-y-ʾ, and all of them match.
The root sh-y-ʾ in the verses of the Quran
Words from sh-y-ʾ appear in 449 verses spread over 73 of the Quran's 114 suras. Sura 2 has the most of them, 35 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.
شَىْء (shayʾ), 283 times
مِنْ أَىِّ شَىْءٍ خَلَقَهُۥ
Quran 80:18; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "thing"
لَّقَدْ جِئْتُمْ شَيْـًٔا إِدًّا
Quran 19:89; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "a thing"
وَكُلَّ شَىْءٍ أَحْصَيْنَٰهُ كِتَٰبًا
Quran 78:29; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "thing"
شَآءَ (shāʾa), 236 times
فَمَن شَآءَ ذَكَرَهُۥ
Quran 74:55; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "wills"
ثُمَّ إِذَا شَآءَ أَنشَرَهُۥ
Quran 80:22; word-by-word gloss of the marked word: "he wills"
Learning the words of sh-y-ʾ
شَىْء (shayʾ), no. 38 with 283 and شَآءَ (shāʾa), no. 50 with 236, are on our list of the 100 most common Quran words, which counts them 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 شَآءَ changes for person and tense. The root sh-y-ʾ 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 sh-y-ʾ used in the Quran?
519 times, in 2 different words, according to the Quranic Arabic Corpus. The most frequent is شَىْء (shayʾ), which occurs 283 times.
What does the Arabic root ش ي أ (sh-y-ʾ) mean?
The Quranic Arabic Corpus glosses the root's form I verb شَآءَ (shāʾa) as "to will, to wish". The root gives the Quran 2 words in all.
Which verb forms of sh-y-ʾ are used in the Quran?
Only form I: شَآءَ (shāʾa), 236 times. That verb accounts for 236 of the root's 519 occurrences.