noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A red powder, made from saffron or turmeric, used ceremonially by Hindu women to make various markings on the body, especially the tilak. uncountable

   "A maid passed her the gold thali with a lamp and kumkum and turmeric powder in it."

Synonyms

All synonyms

bindibindi

Example

More examples

"A maid passed her the gold thali with a lamp and kumkum and turmeric powder in it."

Etymology

From Hindi कुमकुम (kumkum) from Sanskrit कुङ्कुम (kuṅkuma).

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