rakhi
Syllables: ra·khi/ˈɹɑːki/
rakhi noun: an ornamental cotton wristband tied by a girl or woman on to the wrist of her brother, or of one who takes on the responsibilities of a brother, particularly during the Raksha Bandhan festival.
Noun
rakhi (plural rakhis)
- An ornamental cotton wristband tied by a girl or woman on to the wrist of her brother, or of one who takes on the responsibilities of a brother, particularly during the Raksha Bandhan festival.
- When her Amazonian sister the Rahtore queen was slain, the mother of the infant prince took a surer method to shield him in demanding the fulfilment of the pledge given by Hemayoon when she sent the Rakhi to that monarch. ‘The festival of the bracelet (Rakhi)’ is in spring, and whatever its origin...1829, James Tod, chapter IX, in Annals and Antiquities of Rajast’han, or the Central and Western Rajpoot States of India, volume I, London: Published by Smith, Elder, and Co., […]; and Calkin and...
- Although the festival of the Rakhi had not arrived, the mother of the young prince sent Captain Tod, by the hands of the family priest, the bracelet of adoption as her brother, which made his young ward thenceforth his nephew. He had received the rakhi from, and become the "bracelet-bound brother"...1839, James Tod, “Memoir of the Author”, in Travels in Western India, […], London: W[illia]m H[oughton] Allen and Co., […], →OCLC, page xli
Proper noun capitalized: Rakhi
Rakhi
- A female given name from Hindi.
rakhi meaning in Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit
rakhi in Hindi
- ornamental cotton wristband
- राखी rākhī
rakhi in Marathi
- a rakhi
- राखी rākhī
rakhi in Sanskrit
- ornamental cotton wristband
- रक्षिका rakṣikā, रक्षा rakṣā
Examples of rakhi in a sentence
- Veena went in the morning to Prem Nivas to tie a rakhi around Pran's wrist.1993, Vikram Seth, “The Prime Minister Fights, and Keeps His Head. Sad Sons Assuage the Spirits of Their Dead.”, in A Suitable Boy, New...
- The brother accepts the Rakhi and Dora with a genuine feeling of filial love and affection for his sister and as a token of great affection and bond of fraternity for him.1993, Raghuvir Sinha, “Role Playing and Role Taking in the Universal Hindu Family”, in Dynamics of Change in the Modern Hindu Family, New...
- It was the sister's responsibility to prepare a thaali that held the items for the typing of the rakhi.2008, Colleen M. Yim, “Religious Knowledge Transmission through Festivals and Votive Rites”, in Veiled Gurus: A Hindu Mother’s Experiential...
- The whole day long you kept showing up behind the door, hurling taunt after taunt at me for not tying a rakhi on you, until Mother finally relented.2011, Altaf Fatima, “Do You Suppose It’s the East Wind?”, in Reza Aslan, editor, Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle...
Forms of rakhi
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | rakhis |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Rakhee |
Origin of rakhi
Borrowed from Hindi राखी (rākhī, “a rakhi”), from Sanskrit रक्षिका (rakṣikā, “a rakhi”), from रक्षा (rakṣā, “care, guarding, preservation, protection; a rakhi”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek- (“to protect”).
Borrowed from Hindi राखी (rākhī).
Questions about rakhi
- What does rakhi mean?
- Rakhi means an ornamental cotton wristband tied by a girl or woman on to the wrist of her brother, or of one who takes on the responsibilities of a brother, particularly during the Raksha Bandhan festival.
- What is rakhi in Hindi?
- Rakhi in Hindi is राखी (rākhī). See Rakhi meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use rakhi in a sentence?
- Veena went in the morning to Prem Nivas to tie a rakhi around Pran's wrist.
- What part of speech is rakhi?
- Rakhi can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce rakhi?
- Rakhi is pronounced /ˈɹɑːki/ (UK).
- What is the plural of rakhi?
- The plural of rakhi is rakhis.
Words near rakhi in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rakhi (page history and authors); Rakhi (page history and authors); राखी (Marathi) (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-rakhi.wav.
Cite this entry: “rakhi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rakhi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.