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khan.

A ruler over various Turkic and Mongol peoples in the Middle Ages.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kɑːn/
  1. A ruler over various Turkic and Mongol peoples in the Middle Ages.

    historical
  2. An Ottoman sultan.

  3. A noble or man of rank in various Muslim countries of Central Asia, including Afghanistan.

Where this word comes from

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

noun/kɑːn/
  1. Synonym of caravanserai (particularly in Middle Eastern contexts)

  2. Synonym of fonduk (“inn or hotel in Middle Eastern contexts”).

Where this word comes from

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

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.