mahout
Syllables: ma·hout/məˈhaʊt/US/məˈhaʊt/
mahout noun: an elephant trainer, keeper, and driver.
Noun
mahout (plural mahouts)
- An elephant trainer, keeper, and driver.
- The Serrievvan hath the overſight of the Camels, and the Mahout, that of the Elephants.1662, Adam Olearius, “The Voyages & Travels of J. Albert de Mandelslo [i.e., Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo] […] into the East-Indies. […]”, in John Davies, transl., The Voyages & Travels of the...
- The very best of all the elephants belonged to the very worst of all the drivers or mahouts; and the superior beast's name was Moti Guj. He was the absolute property of his mahout, which would never have been the case under native rule, for Moti Guj was a creature to be desired by kings; and his...1891 August, Rudyard Kipling, “Moti Guj—Mutineer”, in Life’s Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., […], published October 1891, →OCLC, page 307
Verb
mahout (third-person singular simple present mahouts, present participle mahouting, simple past and past participle mahouted)
- To drive (an elephant or elephants).
- Word was passed down the river, the call going out for the bravest of Brul mahouting only the strongest of mounts.1984 August, Alan Dean Foster, chapter XI, in Voyage to the City of the Dead (A Del Rey Book), New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 151
- Don't forget, though, your wedding will always be memorable to you yourself, […] On the other hand, even if you arrive on an elephant mahouted by Lady Gaga, there will still be guests in years to come who won't be able to remember whose wedding that was because they were aged 26–32 at the time and...2016, Colm O’Regan, “Standing on Ceremony”, in Bolloxology, London: Transworld Ireland, →ISBN, part 1 (Private), page 50
- To drive elephants.
- First a team of six ponied pulling a miniature fire engine jumping with midget firefighters, then a dozen scantily mahouted elephants painted pink, came out of the arc light and sawdut into neon glow and mirroring asphalt.1957 July, Edward Wellen, “Sweet Dreams”, in Larry T[aylor] Shaw, editor, Infinity Science Fiction, volume 2, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Royal Publications, →OCLC, pages 67–68
- Traditionally they are hunters and gatherers but today they are agricultural labourers. […] They are experts at collecting honey and mahouting.2010, Rajeevan R., “A Socio-political Analysis of the Tribes in Kerala”, in Towards Political Empowerment: Political Socialization and Political Participation of Tribal Community in Kerala, Delhi...
mahout meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
mahout in Hindi
- elephant trainer, keeper, and driver
- महौत mahaut, महाउत mahāut, महावत mahāvat
mahout in Tamil
- elephant trainer, keeper, and driver
- பணிக்கன் paṇikkaṉ, யானைப்பாகன் yāṉaippākaṉ
mahout in Urdu
- elephant trainer, keeper, and driver
- مَہَوت mahaut, مَہاوَت mahāvat
mahout in Bengali
- elephant trainer, keeper, and driver
- মাহুত mahut
More languagesFewer languages
- mahout in Telugu
- గజారోహుడు gajārōhuḍu, మావటి māvaṭi
- mahout in Malayalam
- ആനപ്പാപ്പാൻ ānappāppāṉ, പാപ്പാൻ pāppāṉ
- mahout in Kannada
- ಮಾವಟಿಗ, ಮಾವುತ, ಆನೆಯನ್ನು ನೋಡಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವವ
- mahout in Punjabi
- ਮਹੌਤ mahaut
- mahout in Sanskrit
- महामात्र mahāmātra
- mahout in Assamese
- মাউত maut
- mahout in Arabic
- سَائِسُ فِيل sāʔisu fīl
- mahout in Indonesian
- mahout
- mahout in Persian
- فیلبان
- mahout in Thai
- ควาญ kwaan, ควาญช้าง kwaan
- mahout in Vietnamese
- quản tượng, nài
- mahout in Myanmar
- ဆင်ဦးစီး hcang-u:ci:, ယရည်း ya.rany:
Examples of mahout in a sentence
- The very best of all the elephants belonged to the very worst of all the drivers or mahouts; and the superior beast's name was Moti Guj.1891 August, Rudyard Kipling, “Moti Guj—Mutineer”, in Life’s Handicap: Being Stories of Mine Own People, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan...
- They were of different sizes, and some had their mahouts or palanquins on their backs.1910 November – 1911 August, Frances Hodgson Burnett, “‘There Was Some One Crying—There Was!’”, in The Secret Garden, New York, N.Y....
- Around mid-day elephants were taken into the forest by their mahouts to forage on foods of their choice, and then carried back a supply of food gathered by mahout and elephant.2005, Lynette A. Hart, “The Elephant–Mahout Relationship in India and Nepal: A Tourist Attraction”, in John Knight, editor, Animals in...
Synonyms of mahout
Forms of mahout
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mahouts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mahouts |
| present participle | mahouting |
| past participle | mahouted |
| past | mahouted |
Origin of mahout
PIE word *méǵh₂s The noun is borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi महौत (mahaut)/Urdu مَہَوت (mahaut)), महाउत (mahāut), variants of महावत (mahāvat)/مَہاوَت (mahāvat), from Sanskrit महामात्र (mahāmātra, “elephant keeper; high official; king’s minister”), from महा (mahā, “great”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“big, great”)) + मात्र (mātra, “measure; quantity”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”)). The verb is derived from the noun.
Words that rhyme with mahout
42 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- set about
- shout
- sprout
- doubt
- umlaut
- fill out
- grout
- pout
- devout
- drought
- gout
- nowt
- redoubt
- throughout
- without
- ablaut
- dout
- flout
- lout
- misdoubt
- mought
- prone out
- strout
- term out
- trout
- zoom out
- 'bout
- anlaut
- aspout
- asprout
- bluff out
- chout
- dought
- knout
- kraut
- layabout
- ne'er cast a clout till May be out
- owt
- peter out
- regrout
- sout
- when in doubt, do nowt
Questions about mahout
- What does mahout mean?
- Mahout means an elephant trainer, keeper, and driver.
- What is mahout in Hindi?
- Mahout in Hindi is महौत (mahaut), महाउत (mahāut), महावत (mahāvat). See Mahout meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use mahout in a sentence?
- The very best of all the elephants belonged to the very worst of all the drivers or mahouts; and the superior beast's name was Moti Guj.
- What part of speech is mahout?
- Mahout can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce mahout?
- Mahout is pronounced /məˈhaʊt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mahout?
- The plural of mahout is mahouts.
Words near mahout in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mahout (page history and authors); mahout (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); महामात्र (Sanskrit) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mahout1.wav.
Cite this entry: “mahout.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mahout. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.