Kitai
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Synonym of Khitan, in its various senses.
"ḲARA KHITĀI (or ḲARĀ KHIṬĀI), the usual name since the viᵗʰ (xiiᵗʰ) century in Muḥammadan sources for the Kitai people, mentioned by the Chinese from the eighth century A. D. onwards, who were probably Tunguz (according to another view Mongol)... From the beginning of the tenth century the Kitai carried on a campaign of conquest, conquered the northern part of China and founded a dynasty which as a Chinese ruling house was called Liao (916)."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"ḲARA KHITĀI (or ḲARĀ KHIṬĀI), the usual name since the viᵗʰ (xiiᵗʰ) century in Muḥammadan sources for the Kitai people, mentioned by the Chinese from the eighth century A. D. onwards, who were probably Tunguz (according to another view Mongol)... From the beginning of the tenth century the Kitai carried on a campaign of conquest, conquered the northern part of China and founded a dynasty which as a Chinese ruling house was called Liao (916)."
Etymology
From Latin Kitai, from Khitan or , Khitai(n), probably via Uyghur خىتاي (xitay). Cognate with Cathay and Russian Кита́й (Kitáj).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.