Word.ws English Dictionary

kalgi

kalgi noun: a black heron feather that is worn on a turban as a symbol of nobility.

Noun (1)

kalgi (countable and uncountable, plural kalgis)

  1. (India) A black heron feather that is worn on a turban as a symbol of nobility.
    • The herons of Kashmir were the main source of supply of feathers which were in great demand for plumes (Kalgis) worn by the Sikh Ministers, Officers of high ranks and other men of importance.1984, C. Baron V. Hugel, Kashmir Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, page 64
    • But on turban they painted peacock feathers in place of kalgi and sometimes half bloomed lotus with all the decoration of jewellery and pearls.1999, Jiwan Sodhi, A Study of Bundi School of Painting, page 92
  2. (India) An ornament worn on the front of a turban as a symbol of status.
    • When the question of kalgi and its whereabouts arose, Archer candidly stated that he could not find any kalgi with Lady Broun Lindsay , a descendant of Lord Dalhousie from whom the weapons of Guru Gobind Singh were acquired and nor was it in the Victoria and Albert Museum.1986, Mohinder Singh Randhawa, Indian Paintings: Exploration, Research, and Publications, page 253
    • Shah Jahan's aesthetics transformed the heron's feather into the extravagantly jewelled kalgi.2001, Usha Ramamrutham Bala Krishnan, Meera Sushil Kumar, Bharath Ramamrutham, Indian Jewellery: Dance of the Peacock, page 219
  3. A competitive style of lavani.
    • The Kalgi- group represented the female element in nature and the Tura the male.1937, Haeem Samuel Kehimkar, Immanuel Olsvanger, The History of the Bene Israel of India, page 232
    • Abdul latif of Aligarh city is an accomplished singer of kalgi school and Habb Khan, Yunus Khan and Wahid of Aligarh city belong to the turra school .1981, Jamal Muhammad Siddiqi, Aligarh District, page 17

Noun (2)

kalgi (plural kalgi)

  1. A prisoner of war taken by the native Alaskan Alutiiq people and kept as a slave.
    • Strong and brave warriors could have concubines from among their kalgi, that is, female war captives. Children, born of such captives were not accounted as kalgi.1984, Richard Austin Pierce, Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District, page 194
    • When Shelikhov arrived on Kodiak many kalgi, in hope of a better fate, crossed over to the Russians.2000, Alaska History: A Publication of the Alaska Historical Society, page 3
  2. One of a set of conjoined igloos that form an apartment-like arrangement.
    • The kalgi had low roofs, just taller than a man, but they were very wide.2008 Spring, Zoe Ho, “The Art of the Pihiq (song)”, in Tusaayaksat, page 15

Examples of kalgi in a sentence

  • Ranjit Singh is seen in this image wearing a highly decorated turban with three kalgis or plumes and several different jewels and ornaments.2019, Amit Amin, Naroop Jhooti, Turbans and Tales: Portraits of Contemporary Sikh Identity, page 12:
  • Only Guru Sahib is our sovereign and we thus do not wear a kalgi as we are His servants.2020, Harjinder Singh, Sukha Singh, Jaskeerth Singh, Sikh Code of Conduct, page 55:
  • They make them just enough knowledgeable to be able to fight either on the side of kalgi or on tura after learning lavni songs for one or the other .2002, Jotīrāva Govindarāva Phule, Cultivator's Whipcord, page 37:
  • When Shelikhov arrived at Kodiak, hoping to receive better treatment, many kalgi turned to the Russians.2015, Gwenn A. Miller, Kodiak Kreol: Communities of Empire in Early Russian America:

Forms of kalgi

pluralkalgis
alternative formculgee
alternative formkalghi
pluralkalgi

Questions about kalgi

What does kalgi mean?
Kalgi means a black heron feather that is worn on a turban as a symbol of nobility.
How do you use kalgi in a sentence?
Ranjit Singh is seen in this image wearing a highly decorated turban with three kalgis or plumes and several different jewels and ornaments.
What part of speech is kalgi?
Kalgi is a noun.
What is the plural of kalgi?
The plural of kalgi is kalgis.

Words near kalgi in the dictionary

  1. Kalfuses
  2. Kalga
  3. Kalgan
  4. kalghi
  5. kalghis
  6. kalgi
  7. kalgis
  8. Kalgoorlie
  9. Kalgoorlie-Boulder
  10. kalguksu
  11. Kalhahan'dhihuraa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kalgi (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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