Caliph

//ˈkeɪlɪf// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The holder of a monarchical title based on a claim to be a successor of Muhammad.

    "The Abbasid caliphs patronized art and science beside religious developments ushering in the Islamic Golden Age when their capital Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of caliph. alt-of
  3. 3
    the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
califemirkalifkaliphkhalifkhalifah

Example

More examples

"Zulfiqar was the famous sword of Hazret-i Ali, fourth caliph of Islam."

Etymology

From Middle English calife, caliphe, from Old French caliphe, from Medieval Latin calipha, from Arabic خَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa, “caliph”) and خَلِيف (ḵalīf, “successor”).

More for "caliph"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.