Chania

name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A city, the capital of Chania regional unit, on the island of Crete, Greece.
  2. 2
    A regional unit of Crete, around the city.

Etymology

From Latin Chania, from Byzantine Greek Χανιά (Khaniá), from Arabic الخان (al-ḵān) + -ιά (-iá, “-ia: forming place names”), literally from ال (al-, “the, place of the”) + خان (ḵān, “caravanserai, inn”) but possibly transliterating a neighborhood whose named derived from its former importance in the worship of the Minoan god Velchanos, whose Minoan name was transcribed into Ancient Greek as Ϝελχάνος (Welkhános).

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