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, scholarly transliterations)

Noun

shah (plural shahs)

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran.

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 West Asian, Central Asian 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. His sons used the title shahzada (shah's descendant), which was translated as prince into English.

Derived terms

• shahdom

Related terms

• shahanshah
• shahbanu
• shahi
• Shahmukhi
• shahzada

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 (bn) (śah)
• Bulgarian: шах m (šah)
• Burmese: ရှား (my) (hra:)
• Catalan: xa (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 沙阿 (zh) (shā'ā), 沙赫 (shāhè)

• Crimean Tatar: şah
• 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
• Gagauz: şah
• Galician: xa (gl) m
• Georgian: შაჰი (šahi)
• German: Schah (de) m
• Greek: σάχης (el) m (sáchis)
• Hebrew: שָׁאח (he) m (shakh)
• 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), шаа (ky) (şaa)
• Latin: sachus m
• Latvian: šahs m
• Lezgi: шагь (šah)
• Lithuanian: šachas m
• Macedonian: шах m (šah)
• Malay: syah
• Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sjah m

  Nynorsk: sjah m

• Odia: ଶାହା (or) (śāhā)
• Old Persian: 𐏋 (XŠ)
• Ottoman Turkish: شاه (şah)
• Pashto: شاه m (šāh)
• Persian:

  Dari: شَاه (šāh)

  Iranian Persian: شاه (fa) (šâh)

• 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)
• Ukrainian: шаг m (šah)

Anagrams

• Hash, ahhs, hahs, hash

Albanian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʃah]

Noun

shah m (plural shahë, definite shahu, definite plural shahët)

1. (uncountable) chess
2. check (as it pertains to a game of chess)
3. (also in the plural) a ruler in some Eastern regions (Iran, etc.)

Adverb

shah

1. straight, bipedally, upright

   Synonyms: arithi, qirithi, shahthi

2. bewildered, taken aback

   Synonym: shtang

3. (figurative) alone, deserted

   Synonyms: vetëm, shkretë

Related terms

• shahist
• shahiste
• shahthi

Further reading

• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[2], 1980
• “shah”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• Mann, S. E. (1948) “shah”, in An Historical Albanian–English Dictionary, London: Longmans, Green & Co., page 467

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.

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

South Slavey

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʃà(h)]
• Hyphenation: shah

Noun

shah (stem -zha-)

1. Fort Liard form of sah

Inflection

Possessive inflection of shah (-zhaá)

		singular	plural
1st person		sezhaá	naxezhaá
2nd person		nezhaá
3rd person	1)	—	gizhaá
	2)	mezhaá	gozhaá
4th person		yezhaá
reflexive	sp.	ɂedezhaá	kedezhaá
	unsp.	dezhaá
reciprocal		—	ɂełezhaá
indefinite		ɂezhaá
areal		gozhaá

¹⁾ Used when the subject is a group of human beings
and the object is singular.
²⁾ Used when the previous condition does not apply.

References

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

Swedish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɧɑː/

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