Word.ws English Dictionary

balti

UK/ˈbɔːl.ti/

balti noun: a large iron pan having two handles, especially used in Pakistani cuisine.

balti: a large iron pan having two handles, especially used in Pakistani cuisine
Image: The Endinburgh Blog, CC BY 2.0 uk, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

balti (countable and uncountable, plural baltis)

  1. A large iron pan having two handles, especially used in Pakistani cuisine
  2. (uncountable) A style of curry traditionally cooked in a balti pan, typically stir-fried and served with a relatively dry sauce.
    • For in time, balti became an enduring British cultural entity all of its own—even as Jim Davidson and his fellow bullies lapsed into obscurity.2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 136
  3. (countable) A dish cooked in this style.

Adjective capitalized: Balti

Balti (not comparable)

  1. Of, from or relating to Baltistan.
    • Like most Balti homes, this one has no chimney, since heat would escape and fuel is scarce.1987 October, Galen Rowell, “Baltistan: The 20th Century Comes to Shangri-la”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 536

Noun (2) capitalized: Balti

Balti (plural Baltis or Balti)

  1. A people who live in Baltistan, Gilgit and Kargil.

Proper noun capitalized: Balti

Balti

  1. Their language.

Forms of balti

pluralbaltis
pluralBaltis
pluralBalti

Origin of balti

From Urdu بالٹی (baalti, “pail”), originally coined by Birmingham restaurateur Afzal Butt because English people had difficulty pronouncing karahi, the name of the dish used for cooking this food.

Words formed from balti

Phrases with balti

Words that rhyme with balti

Questions about balti

What does balti mean?
Balti means a large iron pan having two handles, especially used in Pakistani cuisine.
What part of speech is balti?
Balti can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce balti?
Balti is pronounced /ˈbɔːl.ti/ (UK).
What is the plural of balti?
The plural of balti is baltis.

Words near balti in the dictionary

  1. balthazars
  2. Balthazor
  3. Balthazors
  4. Balthrop
  5. Balthrops
  6. balti
  7. balti house
  8. balti houses
  9. baltic
  10. Baltic herring
  11. Baltic herrings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: balti (page history and authors); Balti (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.

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