sultan
Syllables: sul·tan/ˈsʌltən/
sultan noun: the holder of a secular office, formally subordinate to, but de facto the power behind the throne of, the caliph.
Noun
sultan (countable and uncountable, plural sultans or (rare, only in certain senses) salateen)
- The holder of a secular office, formally subordinate to, but de facto the power behind the throne of, the caliph.
- A hereditary ruler in various Muslim states (sultanate), varying from petty principalities (as in Yemen), often vassal of a greater ruler, to independent realms, such as Oman, Brunei, Morocco (until 1957) or an empire such as the Turkish Ottoman Empire.
- Here from the king's mountain view
Here from the wild dream come true
Feast like a sultan, I do
On treasures and flesh never few2006, “Jambi”, performed by Tool
- Here from the king's mountain view
- A variant of solitaire, played with two decks of cards.
- A breed of chicken originating in Turkey, kept primarily in gardens for ornamental reasons. See: sultan (chicken)
Proper noun capitalized: Sultan
Sultan
- A surname.
- A glacier in Antarctica
- A village in Azerbaijan.
- A coastal town in Libya.
- An unincorporated community in Ontario.
- A town, village and mountain range in Turkey.
- A city and river in Washington.
sultan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sultan in Hindi
- ruler
- सुल्तान sultān, सुलतान sultān
sultan in Tamil
- ruler
- சுல்தான் cultāṉ
sultan in Marathi
- office
- सुल्तान sultān
- ruler
- सुल्तान sultān
sultan in Urdu
- ruler
- سُلْطان sultān
More languagesFewer languages
- sultan in Bengali
- সুলতান śultan
- sultan in Telugu
- సుల్తాను sultānu
- sultan in Malayalam
- സുൽത്താൻ, ഇസ്ലാമികഭരണാധികാരി, മുസ്ലീം രാജാവ്
- sultan in Punjabi
- ਸੁਲਤਾਨ sultān
- sultan in Gujarati
- સરતાણ sartāṇ, સુલતાન sultān
- sultan in Assamese
- চুলতান sulotan
- sultan in Pashto
- سلطان soltān
- sultan in Tagalog
- sultan
- sultan in Arabic
- سُلْطَان sulṭān
- sultan in Malay
- sultan
- sultan in Indonesian
- sultan
- sultan in Thai
- สุลต่าน sǔn-lá-dtàan
- sultan in Vietnamese
- vua, xun-tan
- sultan in Myanmar
- စူလတန် cula.tan, ဆူလတန် hcula.tan
Forms of sultan
| plural | sultans |
|---|---|
| plural (rare) | salateen |
| alternative form (archaic) | sultân |
| alternative form (rare) | sulṭān |
Origin of sultan
Borrowed from Middle French sultan or Medieval Latin sultanus, from Ottoman Turkish سلطان (sultan), from Arabic سُلْطَان (sulṭān, “strength, authority, ruler”). Compare Hebrew שִׁלְטוֹן (shiltón) and סוּלְטָן (sultán). Doublet of soldan.
Words formed from sultan
Phrases with sultan
Questions about sultan
- What does sultan mean?
- Sultan means the holder of a secular office, formally subordinate to, but de facto the power behind the throne of, the caliph.
- What is sultan in Hindi?
- Sultan in Hindi is सुल्तान (sultān), सुलतान (sultān). See Sultan meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sultan?
- Sultan can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce sultan?
- Sultan is pronounced /ˈsʌltən/.
- What is the plural of sultan?
- The plural of sultan is sultans.
Words near sultan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sultan (page history and authors); Sultan (page history and authors); సుల్తాను (Telugu) (page history and authors); sultan (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਸੁਲਤਾਨ (Punjabi) (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-sultan.wav.
Cite this entry: “sultan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sultan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.