Shangri-La
Syllables: Shan·gri-La/ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/
Shangri-La noun: a place or land of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.
Noun (1)
Shangri-La (plural Shangri-Las)
- A place or land of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.
- He spoke a kind of Chinese that I don't understand very well, but I think he said something about a lamasery near here—along the valley, I gathered—where we could get food and shelter. Shangri-La, he called it. La is Tibetan for mountain-pass. He was most emphatic that we should go there.[1933 September, James Hilton, Lost Horizon, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, St. Martin's Street, London, published October and November 1933 (2nd printing), →OCLC, page 64
- The length of the journey gives a measure of the anachronism, which as [César] Vallejo said in one of his stories made the hill town a Shangri-La, forgotten by the rest of Peru.1976, Jean Franco, “Poetry as a Mode of Existence”, in César Vallejo: The Dialectics of Poetry and Silence, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN; 1st paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge...
- An opulent building or resort that provides entertainment or luxurious living.
- Well-known architects of the day, like Willis Polk, Albert Farr and Julia Morgan, designed some of the early mansions. Gordon Blanding, millionaire patron of the arts, bought the island's southern tip and built a Shangri La for his San Francisco friends.1975, Jack Mason, Helen Van Cleave Park, The Making of Marin (1850-1975), North Shore Books, page 111
- Synonyms:
- pleasure palace, pleasuredome, Xanadu
Proper noun
Shangri-La
- Former name of Camp David.
Noun (2) capitalized: Shangri-la
Shangri-la (plural Shangri-las)
- Alternative letter-case form of Shangri-La.
- He couldn't believe it when he'd discovered there actually was a town called Bedford Falls. It seemed like fans of the film had all collected there to live out their lives in a self-created 1940s American Shangri-la.1989, Grant Naylor [i.e., Rob Grant and Doug Naylor], Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN
- Tiki Style was forged in the business of bars and restaurants and celebrated in backyard luaus and at theme parks like Disneyland and roadside attractions such as Tiki Gardens. As these ersatz Shangri-las competed to outdo each other with the latest tropical-inspired styles, the popularity of the...2004, Otto von Stroheim, “Introduction”, in Tiki Art Now!: A Volcanic Eruption of Art, San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp of San Francisco; The Shooting Gallery, →ISBN, page 8
Shangri-La meaning in Arabic, Vietnamese and Myanmar
Shangri-La in Arabic
- a place of complete bliss, delight, and peace
- شَانْغْرِيلَا šanḡrilā
Shangri-La in Vietnamese
- a place of complete bliss, delight, and peace
- cõi bồng lai, chốn bồng lai, Hương Cách Lý Lạp, Hương Cách Lí Lạp
Shangri-La in Myanmar
- a place of complete bliss, delight, and peace
- ရှန်ဂရီလာ hran-ga.rila
Examples of Shangri-La in a sentence
- With the fragmented policy-making system which results, America is a Shangri-La for interest groups and lobbyists.1989, Clive S. Thomas, “Understanding Interest Group Activity in the American States”, in D. K. Adams, editor, Studies in US Politics...
- As these ersatz Shangri-las competed to outdo each other with the latest tropical-inspired styles, the popularity of the neighborhood Tiki lounge soared.2004, Otto von Stroheim, “Introduction”, in Tiki Art Now!: A Volcanic Eruption of Art, San Francisco, Calif.: Last Gasp of San Francisco...
- Brian Wilson made the ultimate departure last week: his death all the more poignant because he fixed LA in the world's mind as the cloudless Shangri-La it isn't.2025 June 21, Janan Ganesh, “How Los Angeles made the modern world”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd....
Synonyms of Shangri-La
Forms of Shangri-La
| plural | Shangri-Las |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Shangri-la |
| plural | Shangri-las |
Origin of Shangri-La
From a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton (1900–1954): see the quotation below. A Tibetan origin has been suggested, from ཞང (zhang, “name of a district of Ü-Tsang”) + རི (ri, “mountain”) + ལ (la, “pass”), therefore meaning "Mountain Pass of Zhang District".
Words that rhyme with Shangri-La
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- Moskva
- Nansha
- rah
- shikar
- ah
- aha
- alhamdulillah
- Amapá
- Benoit
- Bogotá
- fa
- galah
- goombah
- huzzah
- inshallah
- Jah
- la
- lah-di-dah
- ma
- moire
- mudra
- ménage à trois
- na
- omertà
- ooh la la
- pa
- schwa
- shah
- sis boom bah
- ta
- wah
- Xisha
- 'za
- allah
- ar
- arthra
- Aymara
- baa
- bah
- Bogota
- boyar
- bra
- cha
- cha cha cha
- chamar
- che sara sara
- chicken paw
- da
Questions about Shangri-La
- What does Shangri-La mean?
- Shangri-La means a place or land of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.
- What is Shangri-La in Arabic?
- Shangri-La in Arabic is شَانْغْرِيلَا (šanḡrilā). See Shangri-La meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use Shangri-La in a sentence?
- With the fragmented policy-making system which results, America is a Shangri-La for interest groups and lobbyists.
- What part of speech is Shangri-La?
- Shangri-La can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Shangri-La?
- Shangri-La is pronounced /ˌʃæŋɡɹɪˈlɑː/.
- What is the plural of Shangri-La?
- The plural of Shangri-La is Shangri-Las.
Words near Shangri-La in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Shangri-La (page history and authors); Shangri-la (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: en-au-Shangri-La.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Shangri-La.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shangri-la. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.