English Explanatory Dictionary

nawab

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A Muslim official in South Asia acting as a provincial deputy ruler under the Mughal empire; a local governor.
  2. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polyura (possibly a subgenus of genus Charaxes).

Pronunciation

/nəˈwɑːb/ /nəˈwɔːb/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nawab.wav LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nawab2.wav

Word forms

nawab nawabs

Etymology

From Hindi नवाब (navāb)/Urdu نواب (navāb), from Persian نوّاب (navvâb), ultimately from Arabic نُوَّاب (nuwwāb), plural of نَائِب (nāʔib, “naib”).

Related words

nabob naib

Derived words

anomalous nawab blue nawab China nawab common nawab great nawab jewelled nawab nawabship pallid nawab plain nawab stately nawab Staudinger's nawab Sulawesi blue nawab tailed nawab

Translations

Arabic: نواب Bengali: নওয়াব Bengali: নবাব Hindi: नवाब Hungarian: navab Marathi: नवाब Persian: نواب Polish: nawab Portuguese: nababo Russian: набо́б Telugu: నవాబు Urdu: نواب
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on N Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary