ghat
See also: ȝhat
English
Alternative forms
- ghât
- (a ravine leading to the sea): ghaut
Etymology
From Hindi घाट (ghāṭ, “pier”), from Sanskrit घट्ट (ghaṭṭa, “a landing-place, steps on the side of a river leading to the waters”). Perhaps related to Telugu కట్ట (kaṭṭa, “dam, embankment”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ɡɔːt/, /ɡɑːt/
- Rhymes: -ɔːt
Noun
ghat (plural ghats)
- (India) A descending path or stairway to a river; a ford or landing-place.
- 1855, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Flora Indica
- The abrupt escarpment of the western Ghats condenses so much of the moisture of the south-west monsoon
- 2008, Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, Atlantic 2009, p. 16:
- Chunks of wood were being built into funeral pyres on the steps of the ghat that went down into the water; four bodies were burning on the ghat steps when we got there.
- (India) A mountain range.
- 1885, Edward Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India
- And farther south, in the interior of the Peninsula, in the elevated tract from 1200 to 2400 feet above the sea, between the Eastern and Western Ghats
- 1885, Edward Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India
- (India) A mountain pass.
- (Caribbean) A steep ravine leading to the sea.
- (India) A burning-ghat.
Anagrams
- GTHA