Subadar

//sʌbəˈdɑː// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The governor or commander in charge of a subah; a viceroy. South-Asia, historical

    "Hindostan was then parcelled out into twelve grand divisions, called soobahs, to each of which a viceroy was assigned, by the title of Soobahdar, corruptly written Soobah by European writers; for, soobah signifies province: many of these soobahs were in extent equal to large European kingdoms."

  2. 2
    An Indian officer in the British Indian Army, of a rank equivalent to captain. historical

    "Also in his favour were his family's connections, the most notable of which consisted of an uncle who had risen to the rank of subedar in the East India Company's army […]"

  3. 3
    A noncommissioned officer rank in the armies of India and Pakistan. India, Nepal, Pakistan
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname from India of Indian origin.

Synonyms

All synonyms

Example

More examples

"Hindostan was then parcelled out into twelve grand divisions, called soobahs, to each of which a viceroy was assigned, by the title of Soobahdar, corruptly written Soobah by European writers; for, soobah signifies province: many of these soobahs were in extent equal to large European kingdoms."

Etymology

From Hindi सूबेदार (sūbedār) / Urdu صوبدار (sūbadār), and its source, (Indian) Persian صوبهدار (sūbadār), corresponding to صوبه (sūba, “province”) + ـدار (-dār, “in ownership of, in charge of”).

Related phrases

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