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''khan'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

khan - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

khan (plural khans)

  • (historical) A ruler over various Turkic and Mongol peoples in the Middle Ages.
  • An Ottoman sultan.
  • A noble or man of rank in various Muslim countries of Central Asia, including Afghanistan.

Noun

khan (plural khans)

  • Synonym of caravanserai (particularly in Middle Eastern contexts)
    • ✤ ‘Guess the name of that,’ she said, pointing to her delicate parts. The porter tried this name and that and ended by asking her to tell him and cease her slapping. ‘The khān of Abu-Mansur,’ she replied.1
    • ✤ At each of these stations there is a hostelry which they call a khan, where travellers alight with their beasts, and outside each khan is a public watering-place and a shop at which the traveller may buy what he requires for himself and his beast.2
  • Synonym of fonduk (“inn or hotel in Middle Eastern contexts”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kɑːn/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Homophone: carn (non-rhotic)
  • Homophone: con (father-bother merger)
  • Rhymes: -ɑːn

Etymology 1

Via late Middle English can, chan from Old French chan, from Medieval Latin chanis, from Turkic ﹡qan, contraction of ﹡qaɣan.3 Cognate with Old Turkic 𐰴𐰍𐰣 (qaɣan), and Mongolian хаан (xaan), possibly from Rouran.4 Sense 1 (ruler in the Middle Ages) after Genghis Khan, from Middle Mongol ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (qaɣan). Doublet of khagan.

Etymology 2

From Arabic خَان (ḵān, “inn, caravanserai, hotel”) and Persian خان (xân, “inn, caravanserai”).

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1923, Powys Mathers, transl., The Thousand Nights and One Night: ↩

  2. 1958-1994, Hamilton Gibb & CF Beckingham, in The Travels of Ibn Battutah, Folio Society 2012, page 27: ↩

  3. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Clarendon Press, 1989. ↩

  4. Vovin, Alexander. 2010. Once Again on the Ruan-ruan Language. Ötüken’den İstanbul’a Türkçenin 1290 Yılı (720–2010) Sempozyumu From Ötüken to Istanbul, 1290 Years of Turkish (720–2010). 3–5 Aralık 2010, İstanbul/3–5 December 2010, İstanbul: 1–10. ↩

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