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Pakistan

proper nouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˌpɑːkɪˈstɑːn//
  • United Kingdom//ˌpækɪˈstɑːn//
  • United Kingdom//ˌpakɪˈstɑːn//

A country in South Asia. Official name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Capital: Islamabad.

proper noun

  1. 1

    A country in South Asia. Official name: Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Capital: Islamabad.

    Described by witnesses as a keen cricketer and pubgoer until contacts with Islamic militants radicalized him on a trip to Pakistan, he was ordered to serve at least 14 years for the plot, and for supplying militants in Afghanistan with money and equipment.

    Sharif at the time said the decision “will save the country precious foreign exchange” and that Pakistan has to “practice austerity.”

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *pewH- Classical Persian پَاک (pāk)bor. Urdu پَاک (pāk) Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- Proto-Indo-European *os Proto-Indo-Iranian *stáHnam Middle Persian -stʾn' Classical Persian ـِسْتَان (-istān)bor. Urdu ـِسْتان (-istān) Urdu پاکستان (pākistān)bor. Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep-der. Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hā́ps Proto-Iranian *Hā́fš Old Persian 𐎠𐎱𐎡𐎹𐎠 (a-p-i-y-a) Middle Persian ʾp̄ Classical Persian آب (āb) Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe Proto-Indo-Iranian *pánča Proto-Iranian *pánča Classical Persian پنج ▲ Sanskrit पञ्चनद (pañcanada)calq. Classical Persian پَنْجَاب (panjāb)bor. Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬ /پنجاب (pañjāb)bor. English Punjab Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epóder. Proto-Indo-European *h₂épo Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hápa Proto-Iranian *Hápa Bactrian *apāka- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Bactrian *-āna Bactrian αβαγανο (abagano)der. Classical Persian افغانbor. English Afghan Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -iader. English -ia English Afghania Proto-Indo-European *kes-? Proto-Indo-Iranian *kaćyápas Sanskrit कश्यप (kaśyapa) Proto-Indo-European *mey-? Proto-Indo-European *mer-? Proto-Indo-European *móri? Sanskrit मीर (mīra) Sanskrit कश्यपमीर (kaśyapamīra)clip. ▲ Sanskrit कश्यप (kaśyapa) Proto-Indo-European *mey-? ▲ Proto-Indo-European *móri? Sanskrit मेरु (meru) Sanskrit कश्यपमेरु (kaśyapameru)clip. Sanskrit कश्मीर (kaśmīra)lbor. Hindi कश्मीर (kaśmīr)bor. ▲ Sanskrit कश्मीर (kaśmīra)bor. Classical Persian کشمیرbor. ▲ Sanskrit कश्मीर (kaśmīra)lbor. Urdu کشمیرbor. English Kashmir Proto-Indo-Iranian *síndʰuš Sanskrit सिन्धु (sindhu)slbor. Urdu سِنْدھ (sindh)bor. English Sindh Classical Persian بلوچ ▲ Classical Persian ـستان Classical Persian بَلوچِسْتَان (balōčistān)bor. Urdu بَلوچِسْتان (balocistān)bor. English Balochistan English Pakistan Borrowed from Urdu پاکستان (pākistān). Coined by Pakistani politician Chuhdary Rahmat Ali in 1933, who published it in the pamphlet Now or Never as an acronym of the names of the "Muslim homelands" of western India—Punjab, "Afghania", Kashmir, Sindh, and Balochistan. Absent from said acronym (which may possibly be a backronym) is the letter ⟨i⟩, which is epenthetic.

The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).