Esoteric interpretation of the Quran (Arabic: تأويل, romanized: taʾwīl) is the allegorical interpretation of the Quran or the quest for its hidden, inner meanings. The Arabic word taʾwīl was synonymous with conventional interpretation in its earliest use, but it came to mean a process of discerning its most fundamental understandings. "Esoteric" interpretations do not usually contradict the conventional (in this context called "exoteric") interpretations; instead, they discuss the inner levels of meaning of the Quran.