Turkmen
UK/ˈtɜːk.mən//ˈtɝk.mən/
Turkmen proper noun: a Turkic language of the Turkmen spoken mostly in Turkmenistan. Also the plural of Turkman.
Proper noun
Turkmen
- A Turkic language of the Turkmen spoken mostly in Turkmenistan.
Noun
Turkmen (plural Turkmen or Turkmens)
- A person from Turkmenistan or of Turkmen descent.
- The conquest took 16 years and ended in 1885 in a battle with the Afghans on the banks of the Murghab. During this period, the Turkmens offered the Russians stubborn resistance […]2005, Chahryar Adle, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, page 316
- Keimir-Ker, a Turkmen from the Tekke clan, led a rebellion against the Persians […]2009, Barbara A. West, Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, page 841
Adjective
Turkmen (not comparable)
- Of, from, or pertaining to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen people or the Turkmen language.
Also used as
Turkmen is also the plural of Turkman.
Turkmen meaning in Hindi, Pashto, Arabic and Persian
Turkmen in Hindi
- language spoken in Turkmenistan
- तुर्कमेनी turkamenī
- person from Turkmenistan or of Turkmen descent
- तुर्कमेनी turkamenī
- of or pertaining to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen people or the Turkmen language
- तुर्कमेनी turkamenī
Turkmen in Pashto
- person from Turkmenistan or of Turkmen descent
- ترکمن torkmán
Turkmen in Arabic
- language spoken in Turkmenistan
- اللُّغَة التُّرْكُمَانِيَّة al-luḡa t-turkumāniyya, التُّرْكُمَانِيَّة at-turkumāniyya
- person from Turkmenistan or of Turkmen descent
- تُرْكُمَانِيّ turkumāniyy, تُرْكُمَانِيَّة turkumāniyya
- of or pertaining to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen people or the Turkmen language
- تُرْكُمَانِيّ turkumāniyy
Turkmen in Persian
- person from Turkmenistan or of Turkmen descent
- ترکمن torkaman, ترکمان torkmân
- of or pertaining to Turkmenistan, the Turkmen people or the Turkmen language
- ترکمنی torkamani
More languagesFewer languages
- Dhivehi
- ތުރުކު turuku
Forms of Turkmen
| Proper noun | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Turcoman |
| alternative form | Turkoman |
| alternative form | Turkman |
| alternative form | Turkmán |
| alternative form | Türkman |
| alternative form (rare) | Türkmen |
| Noun | |
| plural | Turkmen |
| plural | Turkmens |
Origin of Turkmen
The current majority view for the etymology of the ethnonym Türkmen or Turcoman is that it comes from Türk and the Turkic emphasizing suffix -men, meaning "'most Turkish of the Turks' or 'pure-blooded Turks.'" A folk etymology, dating back to the Middle Ages and found in al-Biruni and Mahmud al-Kashgari, instead derives the suffix -men from the Persian suffix -mānind, with the resulting word meaning "like a Turk". While formerly the dominant etymology in modern scholarship, this mixed Turkic-Persian derivation is now viewed as incorrect.
Treated as a plural of the deprecated term Turkman, influenced by English man, plural men.
Words formed from Turkmen
Phrases with Turkmen
Questions about Turkmen
- What does Turkmen mean?
- Turkmen means a Turkic language of the Turkmen spoken mostly in Turkmenistan.
- What is Turkmen in Hindi?
- Turkmen in Hindi is तुर्कमेनी (turkamenī). See Turkmen meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is Turkmen?
- Turkmen can be a proper noun, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce Turkmen?
- Turkmen is pronounced /ˈtɜːk.mən/ (UK).
Words near Turkmen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Turkmen (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)-Persent101-Turkmen.wav.
Cite this entry: “Turkmen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/turkmen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.