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tawaif.

A professional courtesan serving the nobility, especially under the Mughal Empire; (derogatory)

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t̪ə.ʋɑː.ɪf/Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South-Asia/t̪ə.wɑː.ɪf/Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South-Asia/t̪ə.ʋɑː.jf/Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South-Asia/t̪ə.wɑː.jf/Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, South-Asia

  1. A professional courtesan serving the nobility, especially under the Mughal Empire; (derogatory)

    Bangladesh · India · Pakistan · South-Asia · historical

  2. harlot, whore, prostitute

    Bangladesh · India · Pakistan · South-Asia · derogatory
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi तवायफ़ (tavāyaf) / Urdu طَوائِف (tavāif)), in turn derived from Classical Persian طَوَائِف (tawā'if), ultimately derived from Arabic طَوائِف (ṭawāʔif).

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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.