Word.ws English Dictionary

mandil

Syllables: man·dil/ˈmændɪl/

mandil noun: a turban; cloth used to make a turban.

mandil: a turban; cloth used to make a turban
Image: Cristofano dell'Altissimo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mandil (plural mandils)

  1. (historical, chiefly Persia) A turban; cloth used to make a turban.
    • His turban, or mandil [mandīl], was of finest white silk interwoven with gold, bestudded with pearl[s] and carbuncles; [...]1634, Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. Into Afrique and the Greater Asia, especially the Territories of the Persian Monarchie: And some Parts of the Orientall...
    • MANDIL, the Name of a Cap or Turban wore by the Perſians. The Mandil is formed, by firſt wrapping round the Head a Piece of fine white Linen five or six Ells long; over this they wrap, in the ſame manner, a Piece of Silk of the ſame Length, and oftentimes of great Value. To make the Mandil genteel...1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “MANDIL”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volumes II (I–Z), London: […] James and John Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page...

Examples of mandil in a sentence

  • MANDIL, the Name of a Cap or Turban wore by the Perſians.1728, E[phraim] Chambers, “MANDIL”, in Cyclopædia: Or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […] In Two Volumes, volumes II (I–Z)...
  • On the left, a moustachioed nobleman, wearing a cloak and mandil (turban) grasps the cartouche with his right hand, and with his left holds up a bowl.2015, Willem Floor, Edmund Herzig, editors, Iran and the World in the Safavid Age (International Library of Iranian Studies; 2), London...

Forms of mandil

pluralmandils
alternative formmundil

Origin of mandil

From Arabic مَنْدِيل (mandīl, “sash; turban cloth; handkerchief”), already borrowed before Islam from Byzantine Greek μανδίλιον (mandílion), μαντίλιον (mantílion), μανδήλη (mandḗlē, “cloth; hand towel; handkerchief; tablecloth”) (the last word found in an Egyptian papyrus dated to 481 AD), from Latin mantēlium, mantēle (“hand towel, napkin”), probably from manus (“hand”) + tergere (“to rub, wipe, wipe off; to clean”). Compare French mendil (“turban, turban cloth”) (1659; translating German Mendil from a 1656 source).

Questions about mandil

What does mandil mean?
Mandil means a turban; cloth used to make a turban.
How do you use mandil in a sentence?
MANDIL, the Name of a Cap or Turban wore by the Perſians.
What part of speech is mandil?
Mandil is a noun.
How do you pronounce mandil?
Mandil is pronounced /ˈmændɪl/ (UK).
What is the plural of mandil?
The plural of mandil is mandils.

Words near mandil in the dictionary

  1. Mandiches
  2. mandies
  3. Mandigo
  4. Mandigos
  5. Mandih
  6. mandil
  7. mandilion
  8. mandilions
  9. mandils
  10. manding
  11. Mandingan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mandil (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mandil.wav.

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