sepoy.
A native soldier of the East Indies, employed in the service of a European colonial power, notably the British India army (first under the British-chartered East India Company, later in the crown colony), but also France and Portugal.
Meaning & usage
A native soldier of the East Indies, employed in the service of a European colonial power, notably the British India army (first under the British-chartered East India Company, later in the crown colony), but also France and Portugal.
The holder of an infantry enlisted rank equivalent to private in other countries.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁-der.? Proto-Iranian *cwáHdahder. Middle Persian spʿh Classical Persian سپاه (sipāh) Middle Persian 𐭩𐭧 (yḥ /-īh/) Classical Persian ـی (-ē) Classical Persian سِپَاهِی (sipāhī)bor. Urdu سِپَاہِی (sipāhī)bor. Portuguese sipaibor. English sepoy From Portuguese sipai, from Urdu سِپاہی (sipāhī) / Hindi सिपाही (sipāhī), from Classical Persian سِپَاهِی (sipāhī, “soldier, horseman”), from سِپَاه (sipāh, “army”). Doublet of spahi and sipahi.
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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.