Karakoram

English

Alternative forms

• Karakorum

Etymology

Ultimately from a Turkic language, literally meaning "black gravel". See Ottoman Turkish قره (qara, “black”) and possibly قوروم (kurum, “soot”) (kurum) and compare Urdu قراقرم (qarāquram) / قرہ قرم (qara quram).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑː.ɹəˈkɔː.ɹəm/, /ˌkæɹ.əˈkɔː.ɹəm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌkɑɹ.əˈkɔɹ.əm/, /ˌkæɹ.əˈkɔɹ.əm/

Proper noun

Karakoram

1. A mountain range located in Gilgit, Ladakh and Baltistan, containing more than sixty peaks above 7,000 m (22,960 ft), including K2, the second highest peak in the world.
   • 1912, Curtis's Botanical Magazine‎^[1], volume 8, page 8441:

     The Labiate genus Perovskia, to which the plant here figured belongs, is a somewhat anomalous one, comprising four species, two of which are natives of Turkestan with a third confined to Beluchistan, and a fourth, the one now depicted, which extends from the mountains of Afghanistan through the Western Himalaya to Western Tibet. In the Karakoram Range it is met with at elevations up to 10,000 feet above sea level.

   • 1912, Filippo De Filippi, “Introduction”, in Karakoram and Western Himalaya, 1909‎^[2], New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, →OCLC, →OL, page xvii:

     To reach the Karakoram the expedition had to cross the vast mountainous region which lies between Kashmir and Chinese Turkestan, taking a different route each way.

   • 2020 July 7, AIJAZ HUSSAIN, EMILY SCHMALL, SAM MCNEIL, “Indian, Chinese soldiers move away from site of deadly clash”, in AP News‎^[3], archived from the original on 18 May 2022:

     The two sides also appeared to have dismantled recent construction along the river valley high in the Karakoram mountains, satellite images showed.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Karakoram.

Derived terms

• K2, Karakoram Highway, Trans-Karakoram Tract

Translations

mountain range

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 喀喇崑崙／喀喇昆仑 (zh) (Kālākūnlún)

• Czech: Karákóram, Karákoram
• Hindi: काराकोरम m (kārākoram)
• Italian: Karakorum m
• Odia: କାରାକୋରମ (or) (kārākorama)
• Turkish: Karakurum
• Urdu: قَراقُرَم m (qarāquram), قَرَہ قُرَم m (qara quram)

Further reading

• Karakoram, Karakorum at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• “Karakoram”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Karakoram”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[4], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1504, column 3