Taliban

/ˈtælɪbæn/

Taliban proper noun: a Deobandi Islamist and largely Pashtun religious political movement founded in Afghanistan in 1994 by mullah Mohammad Omar, which has governed the country from 1996 to 2001 and since 2021.

Proper noun

the Taliban

A Deobandi Islamist and largely Pashtun religious political movement founded in Afghanistan in 1994 by mullah Mohammad Omar, which has governed the country from 1996 to 2001 and since 2021.
- The president refused to offer any sort of mea culpa on Tuesday, even as the Taliban celebrated their “independence” from America with gunfire in the streets of Kabul.2021 September 1, Michael D. Shear, Jim Tankersley, “Biden Defends Afghan Pullout and Declares an End to Nation-Building”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Feb 2022

Noun

Taliban (plural Taliban or Talibans)

A Taliban militia.
- We will deal with the Afghan Taliban through dialogue. And we will handle the Pakistani Taliban with bullets.2005 April 28, Scott Baldauf, quoting Merajuddin Pathan, “Taliban coming in from cold”, in The Christian Science Monitor^(https://web.archive.org/web/20160304202450/https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0428...
- The Pakistani Taliban, an offspring of the Afghan Taliban, are led by veterans of the fighting in Afghanistan who come from the border regions.2009 March 27, Carlotta Gall, “Pakistan and Afghan Taliban Close Ranks”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Mar 2022, page A1
A member of the Taliban movement or its militia; a Talib.
A censorious or bigoted moralist.
- If the Tory Taliban can't get that, they'll condemn us all to oblivion.2005 July 18, Alan Duncan, “The Tory Taliban must be rooted out”, in The Guardian

Taliban meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

Taliban in Hindi

Islamist movement in Afghanistan: तालिबान tālibān
militia: तालिबान tālibān
member of the Taliban movement or its militia: तालिब tālib

Taliban in Tamil

Islamist movement in Afghanistan: தாலிபான் tālipāṉ

Taliban in Marathi

Islamist movement in Afghanistan: तालिबान tālibān
militia: तालिबान tālibān
member of the Taliban movement or its militia: तालिबानी tālibānī

Taliban in Urdu

Islamist movement in Afghanistan: طالِبان tālibān
militia: طالِبان tālibān
member of the Taliban movement or its militia: طالِب tālib

More languagesFewer languages

Taliban in Bengali: তালেবান taleban, তালিবান Tālibān
Taliban in Malayalam: താലിബാൻ tālibāṉ
Taliban in Gujarati: તાલિબાન tālibān
Taliban in Pashto: طالبان tālibān, طالب tāléb
Taliban in Arabic: طَالِبَان ṭālibān, طَالِب ṭālib, طَالِبَة ṭāliba
Taliban in Malay: Taliban
Taliban in Indonesian: Taliban
Taliban in Thai: ตอลิบาน dtɔɔ-lí-baan, ตาลีบัน dtaa-lii-ban
Taliban in Myanmar: တာလီဘန် talibhan

Forms of Taliban

Proper noun
alternative form	Taleban
Noun
plural	Taliban
plural	Talibans

Origin of Taliban

Borrowed from Pashto طالبان (tālibān, “students, seekers”), plural of طالب (tālib), from Arabic طَالِب (ṭālib, “seeker, student”).

Words formed from Taliban

Questions about Taliban

What does Taliban mean?: Taliban means a Deobandi Islamist and largely Pashtun religious political movement founded in Afghanistan in 1994 by mullah Mohammad Omar, which has governed the country from 1996 to 2001 and since 2021.
What is Taliban in Hindi?: Taliban in Hindi is तालिबान (tālibān), तालिब (tālib). See Taliban meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Taliban?: Taliban can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Taliban?: Taliban is pronounced /ˈtælɪbæn/.

Words near Taliban in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Taliban (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: 2026-09-02

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

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