caliph
/ˈkeɪlɪf/
caliph noun: the holder of a monarchical title based on a claim to be a successor of Muhammad.
Noun (1)
caliph (plural caliphs)
- The holder of a monarchical title based on a claim to be a successor of Muhammad.
- The Abbasid caliphs patronized art and science beside religious developments ushering in the Islamic Golden Age when their capital Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.
- It carries us to the East, and the stately halls of the caliphs rise on the mind's eye; and we think over the thousand and one stories which made our childhood so happy, and stored up a world of unconscious poetry for our future years:...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Coronation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 148-149
Noun (2) capitalized: Caliph
Caliph (plural Caliphs)
- Alternative letter-case form of caliph.
caliph meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Punjabi
caliph in Hindi
- political leader of the Muslim world
- ख़लीफ़ा xalīfā, खलीफा khalīphā
caliph in Urdu
- political leader of the Muslim world
- خَلِیفَہ xalīfa
caliph in Bengali
- political leader of the Muslim world
- খলিফা kholipha
caliph in Punjabi
- political leader of the Muslim world
- ਖਲੀਫ਼ਾ khalīfā, خَلِیفَہ xalīfah
More languagesFewer languages
- caliph in Gujarati
- ખલીફા khalīphā, ખલીફ khalīph
- caliph in Pashto
- خليفه xalifá
- caliph in Tagalog
- halipa
- caliph in Arabic
- خَلِيفَة ḵalīfa
- caliph in Malay
- khalifah
- caliph in Indonesian
- khalifah
- caliph in Thai
- กาหลิบ, คอลีฟะห์
- caliph in Vietnamese
- kha-lip
Forms of caliph
| plural | caliphs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | khalifa |
| alternative form | khalīfa |
| plural | Caliphs |
| alternative form (archaic) | caleef |
| alternative form (archaic) | calif |
| alternative form (archaic) | kaleefa |
| alternative form (archaic) | kalif |
| alternative form (archaic) | kaliph |
| alternative form (archaic) | khalif |
| alternative form (archaic) | khaleefeh |
Origin of caliph
From Middle English calife, caliphe, from Old French caliphe, from Medieval Latin calipha, from Arabic خَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa, “caliph”) and خَلِيف (ḵalīf, “successor”).
Words formed from caliph
Words that rhyme with caliph
Questions about caliph
- What does caliph mean?
- Caliph means the holder of a monarchical title based on a claim to be a successor of Muhammad.
- What is caliph in Hindi?
- Caliph in Hindi is ख़लीफ़ा (xalīfā), खलीफा (khalīphā). See Caliph meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is caliph?
- Caliph is a noun.
- How do you pronounce caliph?
- Caliph is pronounced /ˈkeɪlɪf/.
- What is the plural of caliph?
- The plural of caliph is caliphs.
Words near caliph in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: caliph (page history and authors); Caliph (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-caliph.wav.
Cite this entry: “caliph.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caliph. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.