What does "khitan" mean?

A member of the Mongolic people who ruled Manchuria, then northern China as the Liao, then Central Asia as the Qara Khitais, from the 9th to 13th century C.E.

What is a synonym for "khitan"?

Common synonyms include: khitai, khatna, khitai, khitai, khitanian, khitanian.

Khitan

adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A member of the Mongolic people who ruled Manchuria, then northern China as the Liao, then Central Asia as the Qara Khitais, from the 9th to 13th century C.E. historical

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to the Khitan people, language or scripts. historical, not-comparable

Proper Noun

1
The Khitan Empire; the state or land of the Khitan people. historical
2
The extinct Para-Mongolic language spoken by the Khitan people. historical

Synonyms

All synonyms

khitai khatna khitai khitai khitanian khitanian

Etymology

Reconstruction of Khitan 𘱿𘲫 (*qid ún, small script) or 𘱿𘱤 (*qid i, small script) under influence from Middle Chinese 契丹 (MC khejH|khj+t|khet tan). Doublet of Cathay. Compare Russian Кита́й (Kitáj, “China”) and the various forms of Cathay (“legendary northern medieval China”) in European languages.

More for "khitan"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

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