Urdu
- 1An Indo-Aryan language native mainly to Pakistan and North India, developed as a standardized, Persianized form of Hindustani.
Like two siblings raised in the same household (Hindustani) who later adopted different scripts and separate literary traditions.
Urdu and Hindi share much of their everyday vocabulary but use entirely different scripts.
The poet composed her finest verses in Urdu.
SimilarHindustani, Rekhta, Hindvi
Note
The name itself remembers an army camp. Hindustani urdū came through Classical Persian from a Turkic word for "army, camp," the same word that gave English horde. Santanu Bhattacharya's One Small Voice (2023) retells that origin: a language "born in the barracks," with Hindi grammar and Persian vocabulary. Older names for the language include Rekhta and Hindvi, and Hindustani is the historical label for the shared speech behind it.
- 2Belonging to or characteristic of the Urdu language, its literature, or its speakers.
The university offers an Urdu literature course every semester.
Several Urdu phrases have entered everyday speech across South Asia.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from Hindustani, which took it from Classical Persian urdū, and ultimately from the Proto-Turkic word *ordu meaning "army" or "camp." It is a doublet of horde.