Turk
UK/tɜːk//tɝk/
Turk noun: a person of an ethnically diverse linguistic group that speaks the Turkic languages.
Noun
Turk (plural Turks)
- A person of an ethnically diverse linguistic group that speaks the Turkic languages.
- A member of a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to Anatolia (which comprises the bulk of their modern nation-state of Türkiye).
- The people of Matabello, like those of most of the Mahometan villages of East Ceram and Goram, amused me much by their strange ideas concerning the Russian war. They believe that the Russians were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were absolutely conquered, and all converted to...1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 104
- A Muslim.
- Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers—if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me—with two Provincial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players?c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Compare but our manners unto a Turke [translating Mahometan], or a Pagan, and we must needs yeeld unto them[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- a Christian horse-archer in Crusader army (Turcopole).
- A bloodthirsty and savage person; vandal; barbarian.
- Was neuer any Impe so wicked and barbarous, any Turke so vyle and brutishe.1579, John Lyly, Euphues, page 42
- A sort of primitive barbarity distinguishes the whole; no variety of character appears; and to call a man Turk is to say, that he is jealous, haughty, covetous, ignorant, and lascivious; at the same time that a certain dignity of gait, and magnificence of manners, gives him the appearance of...1760, Tobias George Smollett, editor, The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, Volume 9, page 20
- A member of a Mestee group in South Carolina.
- A person from Llanelli, Wales.
- A Turkish horse.
- The plum curculio.
Adjective
Turk (comparative more Turk, superlative most Turk)
Proper noun
Turk
- A surname.
Turk meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
Turk in Hindi
- a speaker of the various Turkic languages
- तुर्क turk, तुर्की turkī
- a person from Turkey
- तुर्क turk, तुर्की turkī
Turk in Urdu
- a person from Turkey
- تُرْک turk
Turk in Bengali
- a speaker of the various Turkic languages
- তুর্কি turki
- a person from Turkey
- তুর্কি turki
Turk in Malayalam
- a Turk
- തുലുക്കൻ tulukkaṉ, തുരുഷ്കൻ turuṣkaṉ
More languagesFewer languages
- Turk in Kannada
- ತುರುಕ turuka
- Turk in Pashto
- ترک tork
- Turk in Arabic
- تُرْكِيّ turkiyy, تُرْكِيَّة turkiyya
- Turk in Malay
- orang Turki
- Turk in Indonesian
- orang Turki
- Turk in Thai
- คนตุรกี kon dtù-rá-gii
- Turk in Vietnamese
- người Thổ Nhĩ Kỳ
Examples of Turk in a sentence
- They believe that the Russians were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism!1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 104:
- It is no good reason for a man's religion that he was born and brought up in it; for then a Turk would have as much reason to be a Turk as a Christian to be a Christian.1637, William Chillingworth, The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation:
- The man who has been a Turk all his life lives long to plague all about him.1987, Anne Mozley, Essays from "Blackwood", page 21:
- They regarded the very word Turk as synonymous with ignorance, impoliteness, and idiocy.1928, Luṫfī Levonian, Moslem mentality: a discussion of the presentation of Christianity to Moslems, page 85:
Synonyms of Turk
Forms of Turk
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | Turks |
| alternative form | Türk |
| alternative form | Túrk |
| alternative form | Turke |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more Turk |
| superlative | most Turk |
Origin of Turk
From Middle English Turke, Turk, from Old French Turc, from Medieval Latin Turcus, from Byzantine Greek Τοῦρκος (Toûrkos), from Classical Persian تُرْک (turk), from Middle Persian [script needed] (twlk' /turk/), from Old Turkic 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜 (t²ẅr²ẅk²). See Proto-Turkic *tür(ü)k for more.
Words formed from Turk
- Grand Turk Island
- out-paramour the Turk
- Pan-Turkism
- Pan-Turkist
- Turkdom
- Turkery
- Turkess
- Turkia
- Turkicization
- Turkicize
- Turkification
- Turkify
- Turkish
- Turkishly
- Turkism
- Turkist
- Turkland
- Turkless
- Turklike
- Turkness
- Turkologist
- Turkology
- Turkroach
- Turk's head
- Turksploitation
- Turkwise
- Turkwoman
- young Turk
Phrases with Turk
Words that rhyme with Turk
Questions about Turk
- What does Turk mean?
- Turk means a person of an ethnically diverse linguistic group that speaks the Turkic languages.
- What is Turk in Hindi?
- Turk in Hindi is तुर्क (turk), तुर्की (turkī). See Turk meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use Turk in a sentence?
- They believe that the Russians were not only most thoroughly beaten by the Turks, but were absolutely conquered, and all converted to Islamism!
- What part of speech is Turk?
- Turk can be a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce Turk?
- Turk is pronounced /tɝk/ (US).
- What is the plural of Turk?
- The plural of Turk is Turks.
Words near Turk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Turk (page history and authors); തുരുഷ്കൻ (Malayalam) (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)-Knabrupt-Turk.wav, En-au-Turk.ogg.
Cite this entry: “Turk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.