shah

See also: Shah and shāh

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː

Etymology 1

From Persian شاه (šâh), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (šāh), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /⁠xšāyaθiya⁠/). Doublet of check. More at chess.

Alternative forms

• schah (archaic)
• šâh, šāh, shāh, s̲h̲āh (all rare)

Noun

shah (plural shahs)

1. A king of Persia or Iran.
   • 2011 [1977 December 31], Jimmy Carter, White House Diary‎^[1], →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 156:

     We had a cordial welcome in Tehran from the shah and Empress Farah, a delightful banquet, and adequate time to discuss the Middle East and nuclear power affairs with the shah.

2. A supreme ruler in some Middle Eastern or South Asian nations.

Usage notes

The wife of the last shah of Iran used the title shahbanu, which was translated as empress into English.

Derived terms

• shahdom

Related terms

• shahanshah
• shahi
• Shahmukhi
• shahzadah

Translations

king of Persia

• Albanian: shah (sq) m
• Amharic: ሻህ (šah)
• Arabic: شَاه (ar) m (šāh)
• Armenian: շահ (hy) (šah)
• Azerbaijani: şah
• Bashkir: шаһ (şah)
• Belarusian: шах m (šax)
• Bengali: শাহ (śah)
• Bulgarian: шах m (šah)
• Burmese: ရှား (my) (hra:)
• Catalan: xa (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沙阿 (shā'ā), 沙赫 (shāhè)

• Czech: šach (cs) m, šáh (cs) m
• Danish: shah c
• Dutch: sjah (nl) m
• Esperanto: ŝaho
• Estonian: šahh
• Finnish: šaahi (fi), shaahi (fi)
• French: shah (fr) m, chah (fr) m
• Georgian: შაჰი (šahi)
• German: Schah (de) m
• Greek: σάχης (el) m (sáchis)
• Hebrew: שָׁאח (he) m (shah)
• Hindi: शाह (hi) m (śāh)
• Hungarian: sah (hu)
• Ido: sha (io)
• Indonesian: syah (id)
• Irish: seá m
• Italian: scià (it) m
• Japanese: シャー (shā)
• Kazakh: шаһ (şah)
• Korean: 샤 (sya)
• Kumyk: шагь (şah)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: şah (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: шах (şah)
• Latvian: šahs m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lezgi: шагь (šah)
• Lithuanian: šachas m
• Macedonian: шах m (šah)
• Malay: syah
• Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sjah m

  Nynorsk: sjah m

• Old Persian: 𐏋 (XŠ)
• Oriya: ଶାହା (or) (śāhā)
• Ottoman Turkish: شاه‎ (şah)
• Pashto: شاه m (šāh)
• Persian: شاه (fa) (shâh)
• Polish: szach (pl) m
• Portuguese: xá (pt) m
• Romanian: șah (ro) m
• Russian: шах (ru) m (šax)
• Sanskrit: क्षयति (kṣayati)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ша̏х m

  Roman: šȁh (sh) m

• Slovak: šach m
• Slovene: šah (sl) m
• Spanish: sah (es) m
• Swahili: shah
• Swedish: shah (sv) c
• Tajik: шоҳ (tg) (šoh)
• Tatar: шаһ (tt) (şah)
• Thai: ชาห์ (chaa)
• Turkish: şah (tr)
• Turkmen: şa
• Ukrainian: шах m (šax)
• Urdu: شاہ m (śāh)
• Uyghur: شاھ (ug) (shah)
• Uzbek: shoh (uz)
• Vietnamese: sa (vi), vua Ba Tư
• Zazaki: şağ m

Etymology 2

From Ukrainian шаг (šah).

Noun

shah (plural shahs or shahy or shahiv)

1. (historical) A Ukrainian monetary unit.

Translations

former Ukrainian monetary unit

• Russian: шаг (ru) m (šag)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ukrainian: шаг m (šah)

Anagrams

• Hash, ahhs, hahs, hash

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Albanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish شاه (shâh), from Persian شاه (shâh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʃa]

Noun

shah m

1. chess

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French

Etymology

From Persian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃa/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

shah m (plural shahs)

1. Alternative spelling of schah

Further reading

• “shah”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑː/

Noun

shah m (definite singular shahen, indefinite plural shahar, definite plural shahane)

1. alternative spelling of sjah

References

• “shah”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016

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South Slavey

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃàh/

Noun

shah

1. Fort Liard form of sah

References

• Keren Rice (1989) A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 37

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Swedish

Etymology

From Persian شاه (šāh), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (šāh), from Old Persian 𐏋 (xšāyaθiya). Doublet of schack (“chess; check”).

Noun

shah c

1. a shah; a king of Persia

Declension

Declension of shah

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	shah	shahs
	definite	shahen	shahens
plural	indefinite	shaher	shahers
	definite	shaherna	shahernas

Related terms

• schack