caravan
/ˈkæɹəvæn/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Scotland/ˈkaɾəvan/
caravan noun: a convoy or procession of travellers, their cargo and vehicles, and any pack animals, especially camels crossing a desert.
.jpg){kind=link}
Noun
caravan (plural caravans)
- A convoy or procession of travellers, their cargo and vehicles, and any pack animals, especially camels crossing a desert.
- To the left the caravan animals, securely picketed, at regular distances of some fifteen yards apart, occupied an area of several acres.1846, Rufus B. Sage, Rocky Mountain Life
- “Would they could have foretold that my caravan would have been cut up by the Shinwaris almost within shadow of the Pass!” grunted the Eusufzai agent of a Rajputana trading-house whose goods had been feloniously diverted into the hands of other robbers just across the Border, and whose misfortunes...1888, Rudyard Kipling, The Man Who Would Be King
- Synonyms:
- camel train, caravanserai, convoy, pack train, wagon train
- A furnished vehicle towed behind a car, etc., and used as a dwelling when stationary.
- An Italian woman, twenty years of age, […] was travelling in a caravan with the baggage of the Duke of Wellington's army, in the middle of the night, in a violent storm, while she was fast asleep, a small monkey with a long chain upon the roof of the caravan took refuge in it […]1825, Royal Society, Philosophical transactions of the Royal society of London : giving some accompt of the present undertakings, studies, and labours of the ingenious in many considerable parts of...
- The caravans were the demarcation between the non-radioactive areas and the radioactive areas. There were two main caravans, one for people going into the forward area, and the other caravan was for people returning.2006, Roger Cross, Avon Hudson, Beyond Belief: The British Bomb Tests: Australia's Veterans Speak Out, page 92
- Synonyms:
- camper, recreational vehicle, RV, trailer, travel trailer
- A group of camels, especially when used as beasts of burden carrying people and merchandise.
- Twice, however, we encountered a caravan of camels-about seventy strong in one instance, and about thirty in the other.1914, William Ainger Wigram, Sir Edgar Thomas Ainger Wigram, The Cradle of Mankind: Life in Eastern Kurdistan, A. and C. Black, page 64
- It was just about noon, and the mirage in the middle of the day quickly swallows up even a caravan of camels on the horizon, or they get hidden in a dip of the plain, and ours were now out of sight.1879, Lady Anne Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, Harper and Brothers, page 300
Verb
caravan (third-person singular simple present caravans, present participle caravanning or caravaning, simple past and past participle caravanned or caravaned)
- To travel in a caravan (procession).
- The wedding party got in their cars and caravaned from the chapel to the reception hall.
- The provisions of the Vehicle Code covering caravaning of vehicles have been clarified to expedite this type of operation and still result in the proper observance of the objectives of that law.1957, California State Assembly, Journal of the Assembly, Legislature of the State of California, volume 1, page 92
- To travel and/or live in a caravan (vehicle).
- When my parents retired they really got back into caravanning.
- It has to be remembered that, however enchanting the idea of caravanning may be, it is unlikely that it will consist entirely of watching sunsets and other people working — two of the most fascinating sights I know — but there are, regrettably enough, other and less romantic elements.1932, Walter Meade, Caravanning, Cecil Charles Windsor Aldin, The Cecil Aldin Book, page 55
caravan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
caravan in Hindi
- convoy or procession
- क़ाफ़िला qāfilā, काफिला kāphilā, कारवाँ kārvā̃
caravan in Tamil
- சாத்து, பாலைநிலங்களைக் கடக்கும் வணிகர் கூட்டம், திருத்தல வழிபாட்டுக்குழு, மூடப்பட்டுள்ள வண்டி, கூண்டு வண்டி, சக்கரங்கள்மீது செல்லும் விலங்குமனை
caravan in Marathi
- कारवांन, कारवाँ
caravan in Urdu
- convoy or procession
- قافِلَہ qāfila, کارْواں kārvā̃
More languagesFewer languages
- caravan in Bengali
- কাফেলা kaphela, কারওয়ান karōẇan
- caravan in Telugu
- తండా taṇḍā
- caravan in Malayalam
- യാത്രക്കാരുടെ കൂട്ടം
- caravan in Kannada
- ದಾರಿಗತಂಡ
- caravan in Punjabi
- ਕਾਫ਼ਲਾ kāflā, ਕਾਰਵਾਂ kārvā̃, ਕੈਰਾਵੈਨ kairāvain
- caravan in Gujarati
- કારવાં kārvā̃, કાફલો kāphlo
- caravan in Odia
- କାରଭାନ୍, କାଫେଲା
- caravan in Nepali
- कारवाँ, कारभान, कारवान
- caravan in Pashto
- قافله qāfela, کاروان kārwān
- caravan in Tagalog
- karabana
- caravan in Arabic
- قَافِلَة qāfila, مَقْطُورَة maqṭūra
- caravan in Malay
- kafilah, karavan
- caravan in Indonesian
- kafilah, karavan
- caravan in Persian
- کارْوان kârvân, قافِلِه qâfele
- caravan in Vietnamese
- thương đội
- Sindhi
- ڪاروان kārvā̃
Examples of caravan in a sentence
- Camel caravans, and courageous teamsters opened regular carrying businesses between Southern Cross and Coolgardie, while coaches began to run over the desert.1897, chapter 21, in W. B. Kimberly, editor, History of West Australia:
- The caravan of skilled and experienced designers, tunnellers and builders follows these projects around the world.2022 July 27, Sir Michael Holden, “In praise of Crossrail 1... and in search of Crossrail 2”, in RAIL, number 962, page 33:
- The best thing about caravans is that they're always exactly the same, said Terence Butcher.2009, Chris Cleave, Incendiary, unnumbered page:
- As I sauntered to-day down the Rue d'Isly, on evolutionary thoughts intent, I met a caravan of camels, in long single file, coming in from the desert with their bales of merchandise.1888, George Fleming, “On a Certain Deficiency in Women”, in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Leavitt, Trow &...
Synonyms of caravan
Forms of caravan
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | caravans |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | caravans |
| present participle | caravanning |
| present participle | caravaning |
| past participle | caravanned |
| past | caravanned |
| past participle | caravaned |
| past | caravaned |
Origin of caravan
From Middle French caravane, from Old French carvane, from Persian کاروان (kârvân), from Middle Persian kʾlwʾn' (kārawān), from Old Persian 𐎣𐎠𐎼 (k-a-r, “people, subjects”). The word was used to designate a group of people who were travelling by camel or horse on the Silk Road. Doublet of Kairouan.
Words formed from caravan
- caravan city
- caravaneer
- caravaner
- caravanette
- caravanist
- caravan-like
- caravanlike
- caravan park
- caravan parker
- caravan site
- motor caravan
- motor-caravan
- motorcaravan
- static caravan
- caravanner
Phrases with caravan
Questions about caravan
- What does caravan mean?
- Caravan means a convoy or procession of travellers, their cargo and vehicles, and any pack animals, especially camels crossing a desert.
- What is caravan in Hindi?
- Caravan in Hindi is क़ाफ़िला (qāfilā), काफिला (kāphilā), कारवाँ (kārvā̃). See Caravan meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use caravan in a sentence?
- Camel caravans, and courageous teamsters opened regular carrying businesses between Southern Cross and Coolgardie, while coaches began to run over the desert.
- What part of speech is caravan?
- Caravan can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce caravan?
- Caravan is pronounced /ˈkæɹəvæn/.
- What is the plural of caravan?
- The plural of caravan is caravans.
Words near caravan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: caravan (page history and authors); caravan (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); caravan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); తండా (Telugu) (page history and authors); caravan (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); caravan (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); caravan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); caravan (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-AU ck1 caravan.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-caravan.wav.
Cite this entry: “caravan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/caravan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.