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palanquin.

An enclosed human-borne litter or sedan chair, a large box with a chair, couch, or bed raised on horizontal poles and used as a mode of transport.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˌpælənˈkin/General-American/ˈpælənˌkwɪn/General-American/ˌpalənˈkiːn/Received-Pronunciation/ˈpaləŋkwɪn/Received-Pronunciation
  1. An enclosed human-borne litter or sedan chair, a large box with a chair, couch, or bed raised on horizontal poles and used as a mode of transport.

    India · historical
  2. Synonym of litter, any similar vehicle open or closed, human or animal-borne, particularly (historical) in colonial Asian contexts.

    broadly
Where this word comes from

From Portuguese palanquim (“Asian litter, litter-bearer”), from Odia ପାଲଙ୍କି (pālaṅki, “litter”), ultimately from Sanskrit पल्यङ्क (palyaṅka), variant of पर्यङ्क (paryaṅka, “bed, couch, litter”). Doublet of palki.

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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.