Word.ws English Dictionary

chilip

UK/ˈt͡ʃɪ.lɪp/

chilip noun: a foreigner, especially a Westerner; someone from outside Bhutan or the broader Tibetan cultural sphere.

Noun

chilip (plural chilips)

  1. (colloquial) A foreigner, especially a Westerner; someone from outside Bhutan or the broader Tibetan cultural sphere.
    • Tshomo, a young herdswoman from Laya who lives with her herd of yaks on a lonely mountain pasture, hears his cries, saves the chilip, and soon takes him under her wing in every sense of the word.2017 February 13, Martin Uitz, Hidden Bhutan: Entering the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon, Haus Publishing, →ISBN, page 71
    • There are accounts of curious villagers, unaccustomed to seeing those who come from faraway lands, turning up at the door “to have a look at the chilip.” This term for a Westerner is at once affectionate but slightly disparaging.2021 March 4, Karma Choden, Dorji Wangchuk, Bhutan - Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture, Kuperard, →ISBN, page 57

Forms of chilip

pluralchilips

Origin of chilip

Borrowed from Dzongkha ཕྱི་གླིང་པ (phyi gling pa, literally “person from the outer continent”). A common folk etymology links it to grey hair, referring to the lighter hair color of many Westerners.

Questions about chilip

What does chilip mean?
Chilip means a foreigner, especially a Westerner; someone from outside Bhutan or the broader Tibetan cultural sphere.
What part of speech is chilip?
Chilip is a noun.
How do you pronounce chilip?
Chilip is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɪ.lɪp/ (UK).
What is the plural of chilip?
The plural of chilip is chilips.

Words near chilip in the dictionary

  1. chiliocosms
  2. chiliogramme
  3. chiliogrammes
  4. chiliometre
  5. chiliometres
  6. chilip
  7. chilips
  8. chilis
  9. Chilisso
  10. chiliweke
  11. chiliwekes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chilip (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: “chilip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chilip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.