Word typesNoun Typecore term
Also written: ism (naw' al-kalima) · Noun (ism) — word class tag · ISM · Noun-plus
In one line
An ism (اِسْم) is a word that means something in itself and carries no time — and every ism has four properties: definiteness, gender, number and i'rab.
Definition
الِاسْمُ هُوَ كَلِمَةٌ دَلَّتْ عَلَى مَعْنًى فِي نَفْسِهَا، وَلَمْ تَقْتَرِنْ بِزَمَانٍ.
“A noun is a word that indicates a meaning in itself, and is not tied to a time.”
(النحو التطبيقي)
Understand it
A كَلِمَة (kalimah) is one of three: an ism, a فِعْل (fi'l) or a حَرْف (harf). The ism is the naming one.
It means something on its own, and no time is attached to it. Say رَجُلٌ (rajulun), “a man”, and the meaning is already whole. Nothing has happened, and nothing is going to. Time belongs to the fi'l.
Inside the ism
خَصَائِص الِاسْم الْأَرْبَع–(khasa'is al-ism al-arba')
Every ism carries four properties at once: definiteness, gender, number and i'rab.
The ism is wider than the English noun. Pronouns, adjectives, demonstratives and words of place and time are all isms — هُوَ (huwa), كَبِير (kabir), هَٰذَا (hadha), فَوْقَ (fawqa).
How to spot it
الِاسْمُ يُعْرَفُ بِالْخَفْضِ وَالتَّنْوِينِ وَدُخُولِ الْأَلِفِ وَاللَّامِ وَحُرُوفِ الْخَفْضِ.
“The noun is recognised by khafd (the jarr ending), by
tanwin, by taking alif-lam (الـ), and by the particles of khafd (prepositions).”
Recognition test
Run the tests on any word: will it take الـ in front? Tanwin at the end? A preposition such as مِنْ or فِي before it? One 'yes' is enough — the word is an ism.
(الآجرّومية)
In the Qur'an
وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُۥ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌۢ
Al-Ikhlas 112:4 — “And there is none like unto Him.”
كُفُوًا and أَحَدٌۢ both end in tanwin, and tanwin only ever falls on an ism — never on a fi'l, never on a harf. Neither word tells you when, either: an ism means something without carrying time.
Study this ayah word by word →In the language — فِي اللُّغَة
The word اِسْم (ism) in everyday Arabic means a name.
مَا اسْمُكَ؟ (ma ismuka) — “what is your name?”
As a grammatical term it means any word that names something without carrying a time.
Common questions
Is an ism just a noun?
It is wider than that. The ism covers English nouns, but also adjectives, pronouns, demonstratives and relatives. The test is not what the word names — it is what the word lacks: an ism means something in itself and carries no time.
“And We have indeed made the Quran easy to understand and remember.”
Al-Qamar 54:17
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