What does "samarkand" mean?

The regional capital of the Samarkand region, Uzbekistan. Official name: Samarqand.

What is a synonym for "samarkand"?

Common synonyms include: maracanda, maracanda, samarcand.

Pronounced //ˈsæmə(ɹ)kænd//.

//ˈsæmə(ɹ)kænd// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Proper Noun

1
The regional capital of the Samarkand region, Uzbekistan. Official name: Samarqand.
"Look ’round thee now on Samarcand! — Is she not queen of Earth? her pride Above all cities? in her hand Their destinies?"
2
A region of Uzbekistan.

"In the district of Khorasan, Kavus son of Kavad laid the foundation of the city of Samarkand, and Siavash, son of Kavus, completed it."

From Russian Самарка́нд (Samarkánd), from Persian سمرقند (samarqand), from Sogdian 𐼼𐼺𐼰𐽀𐼸𐼻𐼹𐼳 (smʾrknδh /⁠*Smā́rkąθ⁠/).

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