Word.ws English Dictionary

khaki

UK/ˈkɑː.ki/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/xɑki/

khaki noun: a dull, yellowish-brown colour, the colour of dust.

Noun

khaki (countable and uncountable, plural khakis or (especially noun sense 5) khakies)

  1. A dull, yellowish-brown colour, the colour of dust.
    • When you've shouted "Rule Britannia", when you've sung "God Save The Queen",
      When you've finished killing Kruger with your mouth;
      Will you kindly drop a shilling in my little tambourine
      For a gentleman in khaki ordered South?1899, Rudyard Kipling, The Absent-Minded Beggar
    • But being the right shade of khaki or shit-brown is not enough.1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 60
  2. Khaki green, a dull green colour.
    • The English Government for a long time has used a type of pigmented dope cover, khaki colored by iron pigments and lampblack, which is called P. C. 10.1921, War work of the Bureau of Standards, no. 46, page 54.
    • At the end of World War I, the U.S. Army Air Service painted everything khaki. This khaki was practically the same as British PC10 and can be considered the basis of the later olive drab color.2007, Yuji Matsuki, American Fighters Over Europe: Colors & Markings of USAAF Fighters in WWII, page 4, →ISBN.
  3. A strong cloth of wool or cotton, often used for military or other uniforms.
  4. (rare) A soldier wearing a khaki uniform.
  5. (South Africa, derogatory, slang) A British person.
    • "Frank, it's a khaki," I whisper, "keep straight on."1902, Philip Pienaar, With Steyn And De Wet, Methuen
    • War and then victory raised patriotic sentiment inside Britain and brought the Colonial Secretary national popularity. Unionists were quick to milk this with a 'khaki' election in 1900 at which they won a massive landslide.1997, Richard N. Kelly, John Cantrell, Modern British Statesmen, 1867-1945, page 90
  6. (in plural) Khaki clothing or uniform.
    • The porter in going through the rear coach, which was almost empty, noticed one of the occupants, a muscular, soldierly man in khakies to be apparently asleep in his seat.1915 Out West magazine

Adjective

khaki (comparative more khaki, superlative most khaki)

  1. Dust-coloured; of the colour of dust.

khaki meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

khaki in Hindi

yellowish-brown colour
ख़ाकी xākī
dust-coloured
ख़ाकी xākī

khaki in Tamil

காக்கித் துணி, காக்கி

khaki in Marathi

yellowish-brown colour
खाकी khākī

khaki in Urdu

yellowish-brown colour
خاکی xākī
dust-coloured
خاکی xākī
More languagesFewer languages
khaki in Bengali
খাকি, খকি, খাকী
khaki in Telugu
ఖాకీ, ఖాకి, ఖకీ
khaki in Malayalam
ഖാക്കി khākki
khaki in Kannada
ಖಾಕಿ, ಖಾಕೀ, ಖಕಿ
khaki in Punjabi
ਖਾਕੀ, ਖੱਕੀ
khaki in Gujarati
ખાકી
khaki in Odia
ଖାକି, ଖକି, ଖାକୀ
khaki in Nepali
खाकी, खकी
khaki in Arabic
كَاكِي kākī, خَاكِي ḵākī
khaki in Indonesian
kaki
khaki in Persian
خاکی xâki
khaki in Thai
กากี gaa-gii
khaki in Vietnamese
màu kaki, vải kaki, vải khaki, màu khaki
Kashmiri
خٲکؠ khạ̄k'

Examples of khaki in a sentence

  • 'khaki' here means the drab brown - US 'olive drab' - used for woolen uniforms and 'khaki drill' for the pale yellowish tan - US 'khaki' - used for lightweight summer/tropical dress.2010, Martin Windrow, French Foreign Legion: Infantry and Cavalry since 1945, →ISBN, page 52:
  • The very loose seroual trousers were made in both sand-khaki drill, and in winter-weight khaki wool for wear with the M1946 battledress blouse.Op. cit., page 56

All 36 example sentences with khaki

Forms of khaki

Noun
pluralkhakis
plural error-unknown-tag especially nounkhakies
alternative form (obsolete)carkee
alternative form (obsolete)carky
alternative form (obsolete)karkey
alternative form (obsolete)khakee
alternative form (obsolete)kharkee
alternative form (obsolete)kharki
Adjective
comparativemore khaki
superlativemost khaki

Plural of khaki: khakis

Origin of khaki

Borrowed from Hindustani خاکی (xākī) / ख़ाकी (xākī), from Classical Persian خَاکِی (xākī, “dusty, earthy, earth-colored”). Noun sense 5 was coined in reference to the colour of the uniform of British troops during the Second Boer War; compare rooinek.

Words formed from khaki

Phrases with khaki

Words that rhyme with khaki

Questions about khaki

What does khaki mean?
Khaki means a dull, yellowish-brown colour, the colour of dust.
What is khaki in Hindi?
Khaki in Hindi is ख़ाकी (xākī). See Khaki meaning in Hindi.
How do you use khaki in a sentence?
'khaki' here means the drab brown - US 'olive drab' - used for woolen uniforms and 'khaki drill' for the pale yellowish tan - US 'khaki' - used for lightweight summer/tropical dress.
What part of speech is khaki?
Khaki can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce khaki?
Khaki is pronounced /xɑki/ (South Asia).
What is the plural of khaki?
The plural of khaki is khakis.

Words near khaki in the dictionary

  1. khakhly
  2. khakhol
  3. khakhols
  4. khakhra
  5. khakhras
  6. khaki
  7. khaki drill
  8. khaki drills
  9. khaki election
  10. khaki elections
  11. khaki green

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: khaki (page history and authors); khaki (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); khaki (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); khaki (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); khaki (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); khaki (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); khaki (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); khaki (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); khaki (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-au-khaki.ogg.

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