Word.ws English Dictionary

dervish

/ˈdɜː(ɹ)vɪʃ//ˈdɜːvɪʃ/

dervish noun: a citizen or inhabitant of Darawiish (circa 1895–1920 C.E.), an anti-colonial polity in modern Somalia headed by Sufis.

Noun (1)

dervish (plural dervishes)

  1. (historical) A citizen or inhabitant of Darawiish (circa 1895–1920 C.E.), an anti-colonial polity in modern Somalia headed by Sufis.
    Synonyms:
    fakir
  2. (historical) One of the followers of Muhammad Ahmad, the Mahdi of the Sudan, in the 1880s.
    Synonyms:
    fakir
  3. (broadly) Any irregular guerrilla fighter resembling the Sudanese Mahdi in equipment, uniform, tactics, etc.
    • The Hejaz war, meanwhile, would be one of dervishes against regular troops.1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 104
    Synonyms:
    fakir

Noun (2) capitalized: Dervish

Dervish (plural Dervishes)

  1. A member of a Sufi Muslim ascetic fraternity of mendicant friars.
  2. (historical) A citizen or inhabitant of the Taleh-based Darawiish (circa 1895–1920 C.E.), the polity territorially coterminous with modern Waqooyi Bari.

dervish meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

dervish in Hindi

Sufi ascetic
दरवेश darveś

dervish in Marathi

dervish
फकीर phakīr

dervish in Urdu

Sufi ascetic
درویش darveś

dervish in Bengali

Sufi ascetic
দরবেশ dorbeś
More languagesFewer languages
dervish in Gujarati
ફકીર phakīr
dervish in Pashto
دروېش darweš
dervish in Arabic
دَرْوِيش darwīš
dervish in Indonesian
darwis
dervish in Persian
درویش darviš

Synonyms of dervish

Forms of dervish

pluraldervishes
pluralDervishes
alternative form (archaic)darwaysh
alternative form (archaic)darwesh
alternative form (archaic)dervice
alternative form (archaic)dervis
alternative form (archaic)dervise

Origin of dervish

From Ottoman Turkish درویش (derviş), from Persian درویش (darvêš, “poor; Sufi mystic”), from Middle Persian dlgwš (driyōš, “poor, needy”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *drigu-, cognate with Sanskrit ध्रिगु (dhrigu, “needy”) and Avestan 𐬛𐬭𐬌𐬔𐬎 (driguš).

From Turkish derviş, from Persian درویش (darviš).

Words formed from dervish

Phrases with dervish

Questions about dervish

What does dervish mean?
Dervish means a citizen or inhabitant of Darawiish (circa 1895–1920 C.E.), an anti-colonial polity in modern Somalia headed by Sufis.
What is dervish in Hindi?
Dervish in Hindi is दरवेश (darveś). See Dervish meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dervish?
Dervish is a noun.
How do you pronounce dervish?
Dervish is pronounced /ˈdɜːvɪʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of dervish?
The plural of dervish is dervishes.

Words near dervish in the dictionary

  1. derviches
  2. dervillite
  3. dervis
  4. dervise
  5. dervises
  6. dervish
  7. Dervish state
  8. dervishes
  9. dervishhood
  10. dervishism
  11. dervishization

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dervish (page history and authors); Dervish (page history and authors); फकीर (Marathi) (page history and authors); ફકીર (Gujarati) (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:

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

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