khan

• IPA^(key): /kʰɑːn/

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• Rhymes: -ɑːn
• (General Australian, General New Zealand, Received Pronunciation) Homophone: carn
• (US) Homophone: con
• Rhymes: -ɑːn
• Rhymes: -ɒn

Via late Middle English from Old French chan, from Medieval Latin chanis, from Turkic *qan, contraction of *qaɣan.[1] Cognate with Old Turkic 𐰴𐰍𐰣‎ (qaɣan), Mongolian ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (qaɣan, “lord, prince”) (Cyrillic: хаан (haan)), a Turkic borrowing.

khan (plural khans)

1. After Genghis Khan, a ruler over various Turkish, Tatar and Mongol peoples in the Middle Ages.
2. An Ottoman sultan.
3. A noble or man of rank in various Muslim countries of Central Asia, including Afghanistan.

• khanate

From Persian خان‎ (xân, “caravanserai”).

khan (plural khans)

1. A caravanserai; a resting-place for a travelling caravan.
   • 1923, Powys Mathers, translating The Thousand Nights and One Night:

     ‘Guess the name of that,’ she said, pointing to her delicate parts. The porter tried this name and that and ended by asking her to tell him and cease her slapping. ‘The khān of Abu-Mansur,’ she replied.

   • 1958-1994, Hamilton Gibb & CF Beckingham, in The Travels of Ibn Battutah, Folio Society 2012, page 27:

     At each of these stations there is a hostelry which they call a khan, where travellers alight with their beasts, and outside each khan is a public watering-place and a shop at which the traveller may buy what he requires for himself and his beast.

• caravanserai

• Hank, Kahn, ankh, hank

khan m (plural khans)

1. khan

From Proto-Mongolic *gal, perhaps related to Proto-Tungusic *gụl-.

Compare Mongolian гал (gal), Evenki гулдай (guldaj, “to light, kindle”).

• IPA^(key): /qʰaŋ/, [qʰɑ̃(ŋ)]

khan

1. fire

khan m (plural khans)

1. "khan"[1]

• can (obsolete)

From Turkic.

• IPA^(key): /kan/, [kän̺]

khan m (invariable)

1. khan

• khanato

khan m (plural khans)

1. Alternative spelling of cã