Hephthalite

Hephthalite noun: any of a people who comprised a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the 5th–6th centuries CE.

Noun

Hephthalite (plural Hephthalites)

(historical) Any of a people who comprised a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the 5th–6th centuries CE.
- From the mid-fifth to the mid-sixth century Central Asia was ruled by the Hephthalite tribes. There are many gaps in our knowledge of the origin of the Hephthalites and the formation of their state, the first difficulty being that they are given different names in the various sources.1999, B. A. Litvinsky, “6: The Hephthalite Empire”, in B. A. Litvinsky, Zhang Guang-Da, R. Shabani Samghabardi, editors, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume III: The crossroads of...
- F. Altheim assumes a Turkic origin for the Hephthalites. In his own studies he affirms, that the Hephthalites were Turkic-speaking Altaic tribes. The ethnonym "Hephtal" is drawn from the Turkic root: yap, meaning to do, to make, plus a^([sic]) verbal-nominal suffixes t and l. The reconstructed word...2007, Adesh Katariya, Ancient History of Central Asia: Yuezhi origin Peoples, Adesh Katariya, page 158
Synonyms:

White Hun

Adjective

Hephthalite (comparative more Hephthalite, superlative most Hephthalite)

Of or relating to the Hephthalites.
- From the mid-fifth to the mid-sixth century Central Asia was ruled by the Hephthalite tribes. There are many gaps in our knowledge of the origin of the Hephthalites and the formation of their state, the first difficulty being that they are given different names in the various sources.1999, B. A. Litvinsky, “6: The Hephthalite Empire”, in B. A. Litvinsky, Zhang Guang-Da, R. Shabani Samghabardi, editors, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume III: The crossroads of...
Synonyms:

Hephthalitic

Hephthalite meaning in Hindi

Hephthalite in Hindi

any of a Central Asian people who were in nomadic confederation during the 5th–6th centuries: श्वेत हूण śvet hūṇ

Synonyms of Hephthalite

White Hun
Hephthalitic

Forms of Hephthalite

Noun
plural	Hephthalites
alternative form	Ephthalite
alternative form	Haital
alternative form	Haithal
Adjective
comparative	more Hephthalite
superlative	most Hephthalite

Origin of Hephthalite

Hypercorrect respelling of Ephthalite, with unetymological initial h-, from Latin Ephthalītēs, from Ancient Greek Ἐφθαλίτης (Ephthalítēs), from Bactrian Ηβοδαλο (Ēbodalo) + Ancient Greek -ίτης (-ítēs).

Words formed from Hephthalite

Hephthalitic

Questions about Hephthalite

What does Hephthalite mean?: Hephthalite means any of a people who comprised a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the 5th–6th centuries CE.
What is Hephthalite in Hindi?: Hephthalite in Hindi is श्वेत हूण (śvet hūṇ). See Hephthalite meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Hephthalite?: Hephthalite can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of Hephthalite?: The plural of Hephthalite is Hephthalites.

Words near Hephthalite in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Hephthalite (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: 2026-09-02

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