khan¹

(kän, kăn)

1. A ruler, an official, or an important person in India and some central Asian countries.

2. A medieval ruler of a Mongol, Tatar, or Turkish tribe.

[Ultimately (partly via Urdu, khān) from Persian khān, from Old Turkic xān, title of subordinate Central Asian khans; akin to Old Turkic xāğān, overlord of other khans, probably of non-Turkic Central Asian origin. Sense 2, from Middle English caan, chan, from Old French kaan, ultimately (partly via Mongol qā'ān) from Old Turkic xāğān.]

khan²

(kän, kăn)

A caravansary in certain Asian countries.

[Arabic ḫān, inn, from Persian khān, house, from Middle Persian.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

khan

(kɑːn)

1. (Historical Terms)

a. (formerly) a title borne by medieval Chinese emperors and Mongol and Turkic rulers: usually added to a name: Kublai Khan.

b. such a ruler

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a title of respect borne by important personages in Afghanistan and central Asia

[C14: from Old French caan, from Medieval Latin caanus, from Turkish khān, contraction of khāqān ruler]

khan

(kɑːn)

an inn in Turkey, certain Arab countries, etc; caravanserai

[C14: via Arabic from Persian ]

Khan

(kɑːn)

(Biography) See Imran Khan

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

khan¹

(kɑn, kæn)

n.

1. a title borne by rulers of the empire founded by Genghis Khan, and of the states that succeeded his empire in Asia and European Russia.

2. a title of respect used in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and other countries of Asia.

[1350–1400; Middle English Ca(a)n, Chan ultimately < medieval Turkic xān]

khan′ate, n.

khan²

(kɑn, kæn)

n.

an inn or caravansary.

[1350–1400; earlier kanne, cane, Middle English alchan « Arabic khān < Persian]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	khan - a title given to rulers or other important people in Asian countries ruler, swayer - a person who rules or commands; "swayer of the universe"
	2.	khan - an inn in some eastern countries with a large courtyard that provides accommodation for caravans caravan inn, caravansary, caravanserai auberge, hostel, hostelry, inn, lodge - a hotel providing overnight lodging for travelers

Translations

хан

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"Shere Khan, the Big One, has shifted his hunting grounds.

View in context

This showed that Bahadur Khan, his body-servant, had waked from sleep and wished to put Strickland to bed.

View in context

To move down so cunningly that never a leaf stirred; to wade knee-deep in the roaring shallows that drown all noise from behind; to drink, looking backward over one shoulder, every muscle ready for the first desperate bound of keen terror; to roll on the sandy margin, and return, wet-muzzled and well plumped out, to the admiring herd, was a thing that all tall-antlered young bucks took a delight in, precisely because they knew that at any moment Bagheera or Shere Khan might leap upon them and bear them down.

View in context

For a Khan of the plank, and a king of the sea, and a great lord of Leviathans was Ahab.

View in context

Beside it is written, in very rough and coarse characters, 'The sign of the four,--Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar.' No, I confess that I do not see how this bears upon the matter.

View in context

'Kubla Khan,' and the First Part of 'Christabel.' 'The Ancient Mariner' was planned by Coleridge and Wordsworth on one of their frequent rambles, and was to have been written in collaboration; but as it proceeded, Wordsworth found his manner so different from that of Coleridge that he withdrew altogether from the undertaking.

View in context

This will scarcely, however, be considered as a point upon which any comparison can be grounded; for if, in this particular, there be a resemblance to the king of Great Britain, there is not less a resemblance to the Grand Seignior, to the khan of Tartary, to the Man of the Seven Mountains, or to the governor of New York.

View in context

It was when Kubla Khan had decreed his "stately pleasure dome" -- when, that is to say, there were peace and fat feasting in Xanadu -- that he

View in context

So they were roaming about the world seeking and searching for this beauty, and, after having successively rejected the Queen of Golconda, the Princess of Trebizonde, the daughter of the Grand Khan of Tartary, etc., Labor and Clergy, Nobility and Merchandise, had come to rest upon the marble table of the Palais de Justice, and to utter, in the presence of the honest audience, as many sentences and maxims as could then be dispensed at the Faculty of Arts, at examinations, sophisms, determinances, figures, and acts, where the masters took their degrees.

View in context

There is Sikandar Khan, Nur Ali Beg, and Farrukh Shah all heads of kafilas [caravans] - who deal there,' said the Flower.

View in context

This is a ruined Khan of the Middle Ages, in one of whose side courts is a great walled and arched pit with water in it, and this pit, one tradition says, is the one Joseph's brethren cast him into.

View in context

In the time of the Romans, as we hear from Pliny, immense prices were given for pigeons; 'nay, they are come to this pass, that they can reckon up their pedigree and race.' Pigeons were much valued by Akber Khan in India, about the year 1600; never less than 20,000 pigeons were taken with the court.

View in context

khan

khan 1

khan 2

khan

khan

Khan

khan1

khan2

khan¹

khan²

khan¹

khan²