Word.ws English Dictionary

afghan

/ˈæfˌɡæn/

afghan noun: a blanket or throw, usually crocheted or knitted.

Noun (1)

afghan (plural afghans)

  1. A blanket or throw, usually crocheted or knitted.
  2. (Australia, New Zealand) A type of iced chocolate biscuit, sometimes containing cornflakes and topped with a walnut.

Noun (2) capitalized: Afghan

Afghan (plural Afghans)

  1. A native or inhabitant of Afghanistan; a person of Afghan citizenship or nationality and their descendants.
    • Four cases of measles – a highly contagious virus – have also been discovered among Afghans who recently arrived in the US, prompting the administration to temporarily pause flights of Afghan refugees to the US.2021 September 13, Priscilla Alvarez and Oren Liebermann, “Inside the effort to resettle thousands of Afghans in the United States”, in CNN
  2. (dated) A person of Pashtun ethnicity.
  3. Synonym of Afghan rug.
    Synonyms:
    Afghan rug
  4. Synonym of Afghan Hound.
    Synonyms:
    Afghan Hound
  5. Synonym of Afghan coat.
    Synonyms:
    Afghan coat
  6. Alternative letter-case form of afghan (“crocheted or knitted blanket or throw”)
  7. (New Zealand) Alternative letter-case form of afghan (“type of iced chocolate biscuit”)

Proper noun capitalized: Afghan

Afghan

  1. Pashto, a language primarily spoken by Pashtun people in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan.
  2. (UK, abbreviation, clipping, slang) Clipping of Afghanistan.
    • He will be in Afghan for another six months.
    Synonyms:
    Pashto, Pashtun

Adjective capitalized: Afghan

Afghan (not comparable)

  1. Of, from or relating to Afghanistan, its people, or its culture.
    • After the biggest military evacuation in history, the Biden administration will now resettle more than 60,000 Afghan refugees inside the US over the next several weeks.2021 September 13, Priscilla Alvarez and Oren Liebermann, “Inside the effort to resettle thousands of Afghans in the United States”, in CNN
  2. Of, from, or pertaining to the Pashtun ethnic community.

afghan meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and Kannada

afghan in Tamil

ஆஃப்கானிய, ஆஃப்கானியர்

afghan in Marathi

अफगाण, अफगाणी

afghan in Telugu

ఆఫ్ఘన్

afghan in Kannada

ಆಫ್ಘನ್
More languagesFewer languages
afghan in Punjabi
ਅਫ਼ਗ਼ਾਨ
afghan in Odia
ଆଫଗାନ, ଆଫଗାନ୍
afghan in Nepali
अफगान, अफगानी

Synonyms of afghan

Forms of afghan

pluralafghans
alternative formAfghan
pluralAfghans
alternative form (obsolete)Affghan

Plural of afghan: afghans

Origin of afghan

From Afghan.

Borrowed from Classical Persian افغان (afġān, “Afghan”), from Bactrian αβαγανο (abagano), first attested in the fourth century CE, most likely a compound of *apāka- (“distant, faraway”), from Proto-Iranian *Hápa, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hápa (“away”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó + *-āna (“ethnic group”), from Proto-Indo-European *-nós, thus: "people from a distant land". Various scholars have proposed Sanskrit etymologies since the nineteenth century (especially prior to the 2007 publication of earlier Bactrian attestations for the word), but linguist Johnny Cheung notes that these are "extremely difficult to reconcile" with recent evidence pointing to a Bactrian source.

Words formed from afghan

Phrases with afghan

Words that rhyme with afghan

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about afghan

What does afghan mean?
Afghan means a blanket or throw, usually crocheted or knitted.
What is afghan in Tamil?
Afghan in Tamil is ஆஃப்கானிய, ஆஃப்கானியர். See Afghan meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is afghan?
Afghan can be a noun, a proper noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce afghan?
Afghan is pronounced /ˈæfˌɡæn/ (UK).
What is the plural of afghan?
The plural of afghan is afghans.

Words near afghan in the dictionary

  1. affzers
  2. Afg
  3. Afg.
  4. Afganistan
  5. AFGE
  6. afghan
  7. Afghan bread
  8. Afghan breads
  9. Afghan fox
  10. Afghan foxes
  11. Afghan Hound

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: afghan (page history and authors); Afghan (page history and authors); afghan (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afghan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afghan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afghan (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afghan (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afghan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); afghan (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-afghan.ogg, EN-AU ck1 afghan.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Afghan.wav.

Cite this entry: “afghan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afghan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.