noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A seat, usually with a canopy, carried on the back of an elephant or camel.

   "They don't ask for palanquins and howdahs."

2. 2
   a (usually canopied) seat for riding on the back of a camel or elephant wordnet
3. 3
   An ornate carriage which is positioned on the back of elephants or occasionally other animals, used most often in the past for rich people who travelled in India via elephant.

Synonyms

All synonyms

houdahsaddle

Example

More examples

"There is a howdah on the horse and a saddle on the elephant."

Etymology

From Hindi हौदा (haudā), from Arabic هَوْدَج (hawdaj, “litter carried by a camel”) (1774).

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