Sarf · morphologyGendercore term24,401+ in the Qur'an
Also written: Mudhakkar and Mu'annath · Masculine and feminine · Jins · Masculine
In one line
The masculine — Arabic's default gender, assumed for every noun unless something marks it feminine.
Classical definition
المُذَكَّرُ مَا خَلَا مِنْ عَلَامَةِ التَّأْنِيثِ وَصَحَّ أَنْ تُشِيرَ إِلَيْهِ بِقَوْلِكَ «هَذَا».
“The masculine is what is free of any feminine marker, and can properly be pointed to with هَذَا (“this”, masculine).”
(بتصرف من شذا العرف)
Key words in the Arabic
خَلَا مِنْis free of, lacks
عَلَامَة التَّأْنِيثthe feminine marker
تُشِير إِلَيْهِyou point to it
Understand it
Every Arabic ism is either masculine or feminine — there is no neuter “it”. Gender matters because everything that refers back to a noun — adjective, pronoun, verb, demonstrative — must match it, so one wrong guess ripples through the whole sentence. When unsure, use the pointer test from the definition: if هَذَا sits naturally before the word, treat it as masculine.
How to spot it
Recognition test
No ة at the end, and هَذَا fits before it — masculine.
Related terms
▶ Watch the lessons
From the free course The Language of Quran — Easier than English (Book 1) (LoQ1), taught by Ustad Muhammad Arjan Ali.
Common questions
Are plurals masculine or feminine?
Rational beings keep their natural gender. Broken plurals of non-rational things take feminine SINGULAR agreement — الكُتُب agrees like “she”. This one rule explains a great deal of Quranic agreement that otherwise looks irregular.
Domain: Sarf · Category: Gender · Frequency in the Qur'an: 24,401 · Source: بتصرف من شذا العرف, cross-checked against the Quranic corpus · Reviewed by Ustad M. Arjan Ali