Word.ws English Dictionary

jalis

jalis is the plural of jali.

Meaning of jali

Noun (1)

jali (plural jalis)

  1. A stone screen, perforated or latticed, usually with a geometrical ornamental pattern, used in Indian and Islamic architecture as a climate-controlling element.
    • The main purpose of jali is to control light, air flow, visual privacy, aesthetic and social role, and spatiality. The central technical aspect of the jali's construction is its function as a climate-controlling element, where the distances between the interstices, the size, and the volume of the...2024, Sharmin Khan, Kheir Al-Kodmany, Mohd Khalid Hassan, M. Farhan Fazli, editors, The Majesty of Islamic Art and Architecture, Copal Publishing, →ISBN, page 16

Noun (2)

jali (plural jalis)

  1. (uncommon) A praise-singer or griot in Western Africa.
    • The plucked instrument's harplike sound accompanies the jali's song—praise for patrons, histories and genealogies, satire, political commentary, and poetic recitation.2015, J. Kenneth Moore, Jayson Kerr Dobney, E Bradley Strachen-Scherer, Musical Instruments: Highlights of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 172

Questions about jalis

What is jalis the plural of?
Jalis is the plural of jali.

Words near jalis in the dictionary

  1. jalia
  2. jalias
  3. Jalil
  4. Jalili syndrome
  5. Jalils
  6. jalis
  7. Jalisa
  8. Jalisco
  9. Jaliyah
  10. jalkar
  11. jalkars

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jalis (page history and authors); jali (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: “jalis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jalis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.