Kharkiv
name ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An industrial city, the administrative centre of Kharkiv Raion, Kharkiv Oblast, in eastern Ukraine.
"As a schoolboy in the Soviet Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, (it was then spelled Kharkov in line with the all-permeating ‘Russification’), I was a railway buff."
- 2 A raion of Kharkiv Oblast, in eastern Ukraine. Seat: Kharkiv.
- 3 An oblast in eastern Ukraine. Seat: Kharkiv.
"But Ukraine claimed its forces had shot down one of these drones for the first time last month near the city of Kupyansk in Kharkiv."
- 4 A river in eastern Ukraine.
- 5 Ellipsis of 9167 Kharkiv: an asteroid in Asteroid Belt, Solar System. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"At the pizzeria on the 27th of March of 2015, Yaroslav the Ukrainian and I discuss many things. He says that his town in Ukraine is Kharkov (in Russian) or Kharkiv (in Ukrainian). We talk about the palatial subway or train stations in Russia, Uzbekistan, France, etc. Yaroslav's white Canadian neighbour in Vancouver is always drunk, he says, and may have a bit of Native Indian ancestry. We talk about how English slang is not a good habit. Many immigrants here in Canada do not speak slang. Yaroslav still likes learning English. I tell him that when I came to Canada at age 10, I could read English, but I did not speak well. It took me about a year to get accustomed to speaking English."
Etymology
From Ukrainian Ха́рків (Xárkiv), from Old Ruthenian Ха́рьковъ (Xárʹkov) (compare Russian Ха́рьков (Xárʹkov), whence English Kharkov). The city is named after the Kharkiv River. A folk etymology says the city and river are named after a Cossack called Харко́ (Xarkó), from Харько́ (Xarʹkó), from Greek Χαρίτων (Charíton), but there is no hard evidence supporting this.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.