Word.ws English Dictionary

pali

/ˈpɑːli/

pali is the plural of palus.

Meaning of palus

Noun (1)

palus (plural pali)

  1. (marine biology) A vertical pillar along the inner septal margin of a coral.

Noun (2)

palus (plural paludes)

  1. A small plain (compared to mare) on the surface of a planet or satellite.

Noun (3)

palus (plural pali)

  1. (historical) Any of the ranks in the hierarchy of gladiators.

See all 4 meanings of palus

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Pali

Pali

  1. A Middle Indo-Aryan language of north India, closely related to Sanskrit; the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism.
  2. A district of Rajasthan, India.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Pali

Pali

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Bali (in Taiwan).
    • For field release trials, two C. p. fatigans breeding places (hereafter referred to as sites “A” and “B”) were selected in Pali Township, Taipei County.1976, Pao-shu Chen, “A Study on Reesimermis Nielseni for Control of Culex Pipiens Fatigans in Taiwan”, in Bulletin of the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, volume 15, number 1, →ISSN, →OCLC...
    • Forty minutes later, we found ourselves seated on boulders on the side of Kuan Yin Shan with a lovely view of the river and the town of Tamsui to the east and the farms and field of Pali to the north.1981 October 25, Robert Benjamin Kritzer, “This young American finds basic Chinese values still intact in old & new Taiwan”, in 自由中國週報 [Free China Weekly], volume XXII, number 42, Taipei, →ISSN...

Noun capitalized: Pali

Pali (plural Palis)

  1. (derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur) A Palestinian person.

Adjective capitalized: Pali

Pali (not comparable)

  1. (derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slur) Palestinian.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Pali

Pali

  1. (slang) The Pacific Palisades coast.

Forms of pali

pluralPalis
alternative formPally

Origin of pali

A learned borrowing from Sanskrit पालि (pāli).

From Mandarin 八里 (Bālǐ), Wade–Giles romanization: Pa¹-li³.

Clipping of Palestinian, influenced by Paki.

Words formed from pali

Words that rhyme with pali

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pali

What does pali mean?
Pali means a Middle Indo-Aryan language of north India, closely related to Sanskrit; the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism.
What is pali the plural of?
Pali is the plural of palus.
What part of speech is pali?
Pali can be a proper noun, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce pali?
Pali is pronounced /ˈpɑːli/.

Words near pali in the dictionary

  1. palfreys
  2. Palghar
  3. palgrave
  4. palgraves
  5. Palhares
  6. pali
  7. pali-
  8. palichnology
  9. palichthyology
  10. palicid
  11. palicids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pali (page history and authors); Pali (page history and authors); palus (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-Pali.wav.

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