astrakhan

/æstɹəˈkæn/

astrakhan noun: closely-curled black or grey fleece of very young karakul lambs from Astrakhan.

Image: Raimon Furs Ltd, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

astrakhan (countable and uncountable, plural astrakhans)

Closely-curled black or grey fleece of very young karakul lambs from Astrakhan.
Cloth resembling the above mentioned fur, often made from wool and mohair and used for trimmings.
- Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah, and produced from behind a curtain a very long befrogged topcoat with Astrakhan collar and cuffs.1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Story of the Bald-headed Man”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, pages 66–67
- Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat […]1891 June 25, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Adventure I.—A Scandal in Bohemia.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume II, London...

Astrakhan

An oblast of Russia. Seat: Astrakhan.
A city, the administrative center of Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River
A steppe in Russia, part of the Eurasian Steppes

Astrakhan (countable and uncountable, plural Astrakhans)

(archaic) Alternative letter-case form of astrakhan.
- Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah, and produced from behind a curtain a very long befrogged topcoat with Astrakhan collar and cuffs.1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Story of the Bald-headed Man”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, pages 66–67
- Heavy bands of Astrakhan were slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Scandal In Bohemia, Norton, published 2005, page 14

He was dressed in a long green overcoat with mock astrakhan cuffs and collar and wore on his head an oval fur cap.1914, James Joyce, The Dead:
He was dressed in uniform—a black uniform trimmed with gray astrakhan.1924, Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game:
Was the cavalry officer slim and elegant, and dressed in astrakhan?1929 September, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, uniform edition, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, […]...

plural	astrakhans
plural	Astrakhans

Named after the city of Astrakhan in Southern Russia.

Borrowed from Russian А́страхань (Ástraxanʹ).

What does astrakhan mean?: Astrakhan means closely-curled black or grey fleece of very young karakul lambs from Astrakhan.
What is astrakhan in Arabic?: Astrakhan in Arabic is زَرْدَخَان (zardaḵān). See Astrakhan meaning in Arabic.
How do you use astrakhan in a sentence?: He was dressed in a long green overcoat with mock astrakhan cuffs and collar and wore on his head an oval fur cap.
What part of speech is astrakhan?: Astrakhan can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce astrakhan?: Astrakhan is pronounced /æstɹəˈkæn/.
What is the plural of astrakhan?: The plural of astrakhan is astrakhans.

Adapted from Wiktionary: astrakhan (page history and authors); Astrakhan (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Eleanorrrrrrrrrr-astrakhan.wav.

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