Word.ws English Dictionary

Khitan

Khitan noun: a member of the Mongolic people who ruled Manchuria, then northern China as the Liao, then Central Asia as the Qara Khitais, from the 9th to 13th century C.E.

Noun

Khitan (plural Khitans or Khitan)

  1. (historical) A member of the Mongolic people who ruled Manchuria, then northern China as the Liao, then Central Asia as the Qara Khitais, from the 9th to 13th century C.E.

Adjective

Khitan (not comparable)

  1. (historical) Of or pertaining to the Khitan people, language or scripts.
    Synonyms:
    Khitanian, Khitanic

Proper noun

Khitan

  1. (historical) The Khitan Empire; the state or land of the Khitan people.
    Synonyms:
    Liao
  2. (historical) The extinct Para-Mongolic language spoken by the Khitan people.
    Synonyms:
    Khitanian, Khitanic

Khitan meaning in Arabic

Khitan in Arabic

member of a Mongolic people
خَطَائِيّ ḵaṭāʔiyy, خَطَائِيَّة ḵaṭāʔiyya
of the people, language or scripts
خَطَائِيّ ḵaṭāʔiyy
language
اللُّغَة الْخَطَائِيَّة al-luḡa l-ḵiṭāʔiyya

Synonyms of Khitan

Forms of Khitan

pluralKhitans
pluralKhitan
alternative formKitai
alternative formKhitai
alternative formKitan
alternative formK'itan

Origin of Khitan

Reconstruction of Khitan 𘱿𘲫 (*qid ún, small script) or 𘱿𘱤 (*qid i, small script) under influence from Middle Chinese 契丹 (MC khejH|khj+t|khet tan). Doublet of Cathay. Compare Russian Кита́й (Kitáj, “China”) and the various forms of Cathay (“legendary northern medieval China”) in European languages.

Words formed from Khitan

Questions about Khitan

What does Khitan mean?
Khitan means a member of the Mongolic people who ruled Manchuria, then northern China as the Liao, then Central Asia as the Qara Khitais, from the 9th to 13th century C.E.
What is Khitan in Arabic?
Khitan in Arabic is خَطَائِيّ (ḵaṭāʔiyy), خَطَائِيَّة (ḵaṭāʔiyya), اللُّغَة الْخَطَائِيَّة (al-luḡa l-ḵiṭāʔiyya). See Khitan meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is Khitan?
Khitan can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
What is the plural of Khitan?
The plural of Khitan is Khitans.

Words near Khitan in the dictionary

  1. khis
  2. Khistevarz
  3. khit
  4. Khitai
  5. Khitais
  6. Khitan
  7. Khitan large script
  8. Khitan small script
  9. Khitanian
  10. Khitanic
  11. Khitanologist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Khitan (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:

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