Sanjak
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A district, a prefecture, particularly (historical) a second-level administrative division of the Ottoman Empire.
"This lymphatic monster had once blocked the distinguished pharynx of Lord Blatherard Osmo, who at the time occupied the Novy Pazar desk at the Foreign Office, an obscure penance for the previous century of British policy on the Eastern Question, for on this obscure sanjak had once hinged the entire fate of Europe."
- 2 Synonym of sanjakbey: the officer supervising a sanjak. historical, obsolete
"... the Duke ... enforced all the whole Armie to retire to the Campe, with the losse of five or six thousand, with the Bashaw of Buda, and foure or five Zanzacks, with divers other great Commanders, two hundred Prisoners, and nine peeces of Ordnance."
Example
More examples"This lymphatic monster had once blocked the distinguished pharynx of Lord Blatherard Osmo, who at the time occupied the Novy Pazar desk at the Foreign Office, an obscure penance for the previous century of British policy on the Eastern Question, for on this obscure sanjak had once hinged the entire fate of Europe."
Etymology
From Ottoman Turkish سنجاق (sancâk, “subdivision of a vilayet”, literally “flag, banner”), from Proto-Turkic *sančgak (“lance, streamer attached to a spear”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.