What does "giaour" mean?

A non-Muslim, especially a Christian, an infidel; especially as used by Turkish people with particular reference to Christians such as Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Serbs and Assyrians.

What is a synonym for "giaour"?

Common synonyms include: gentile, infidel, kafir, unbeliever.

Giaour

//ˈd͡ʒaʊə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A non-Muslim, especially a Christian, an infidel; especially as used by Turkish people with particular reference to Christians such as Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Serbs and Assyrians. slur
"And far beyond the Moslem's power / Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour."

Synonyms

All synonyms

gentile infidel kafir unbeliever

Antonyms

All antonyms

muslim

Example

More examples

"And far beyond the Moslem's power / Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour."

Etymology

Borrowed from French giaour, from Ottoman Turkish كاور (gâvur), from Classical Persian گَاوُر (gāwur), a variant of گَبْر (gabr, “infidel”); see there for more. Doublet of Gheber and Gueber.

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