Ghat
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A descending path or stairway to a river; a ford or landing-place. India
"The abrupt escarpment of the western Ghats condenses so much of the moisture of the south-west monsoon"
- 2 stairway in India leading down to a landing on the water wordnet
- 3 A mountain range. 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"
- 4 A mountain pass. India
- 5 A steep ravine leading to the sea. Caribbean
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- 6 A burning-ghat. India
"On the steps of the Manikarnika ghat—the holiest of the city’s stepped riverbanks, upon which Hindu dead are cremated—the fires are already lit, and mourners assemble by the hundred to accompany their loved ones at the end."
Example
More examples"The abrupt escarpment of the western Ghats condenses so much of the moisture of the south-west monsoon"
Etymology
Borrowed from Hindi घाट (ghāṭ, “pier”), from Sanskrit घट्ट (ghaṭṭa, “a landing-place, steps on the side of a river leading to the waters”), from Dravidian. Compare Telugu గట్టు (gaṭṭu, “dam, embankment”), కట్ట (kaṭṭa, “dam, embankment”), derived from కట్టు (kaṭṭu, “to tie”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.