An āyah (Arabic: آية, Arabic pronunciation: [ʔaː.ja]; plural: آيات ʾāyāt) is a "verse" in the Qur'an, one of the statements of varying length that make up the chapters (surah) of the Qur'an and are marked by a number. In a purely linguistic context the word means "evidence", "sign" or "miracle", and thus may refer to things other than Qur'anic verses, such as religious obligations (āyat taklīfiyyah) or cosmic phenomena (āyat takwīniyyah). In the Qur'an it is referred to with both connotations in several verses such as: