Word.ws English Dictionary

khipu

khipu is the alternative form of quipu.

Meaning of quipu

Noun

quipu (plural quipus)

  1. A recording device, used by the Incas, consisting of intricate knotted cords.
    • Among a cache of 21 quipus recovered from a house, probably that of the chief quipu keeper, seven are clearly related in a three-tier accounting hierarchy.2005 August 16, Nicholas Wade, “Those Ancient Incan Knots? Tax Accounting, Researchers Suggest”, in The New York Times

Forms of khipu

pluralkhipus

Origin of khipu

Borrowed from Quechua khipu.

Questions about khipu

What is khipu the alternative form of?
Khipu is the alternative form of quipu.

Words near khipu in the dictionary

  1. khinkali
  2. khinkalis
  3. Khinnis
  4. Khins
  5. Khios
  6. khipu
  7. khipus
  8. khir
  9. khiraj
  10. khirbat
  11. khirbats

Source and license

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