What does "shikari" mean?

A hunter or tracker, especially in the Indian subcontinent.

What is a synonym for "shikari"?

Common synonyms include: beater, courser, hunter, nimrod, sportsman.

Pronounced //ʃɪˈkɑːɹiː//.

//ʃɪˈkɑːɹiː// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A hunter or tracker, especially in the Indian subcontinent.
"‘And if thou art not a shikarri, where didst thou learn thy knowledge of the tiger-folk?’ said he. ‘No tracker could have done better.’"
2
A shooting-boat used in the Kashmir lakes. historical

"‘And if thou art not a shikarri, where didst thou learn thy knowledge of the tiger-folk?’ said he. ‘No tracker could have done better.’"

From Urdu شکاری / Hindi शिकारी (śikārī), from Persian شکاری (šekâri, “of hunting”), from شکار (šekâr, “hunting, game”).

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