Urdu definition

o͝ordo͝o, ûr-
An Indic language that is the official literary language of Pakistan, essentially identical to Hindi in its spoken form but in its literary form heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and written in an Arabic alphabet.
noun
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An Indo-Aryan language of Pakistan and N India, having the same basic grammar as Hindi but containing many words derived from Persian and Arabic: it is written in Arabic characters and is the official language of Pakistan.
noun
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Urdu is the official written language of Pakistan.

An example of Urdu is the word "adaab" written in Arabic characters.

noun
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Of or relating to the Urdu language.
adjective
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An Indo-Iranian language with native speakers mainly in Pakistan and North India.
pronoun
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3
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Origin of urdu

  • Urdu urdū short for zabān-i urdū Persian zabān language, tongue Persian -ī of the Persian urdū camp, court (from Old Turkic ordu residence, court)

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Persian اردو (ordu), from Turkic *ordu (“army, camp") (> Azeri ordu, Turkish ordu, Turkmen oorda). Compare horde.

    From Wiktionary

Urdu Sentence Examples

  • Speaks - Pick from a range of languages, including Italian, Dutch, and Urdu.

  • Among young people is there a developing English Urdu patois?

  • That is an entirely separate subfamily to the one which the Hindi and Urdu languages of India and Pakistan belong.

  • Among the members of the movement were several important literati who wrote both Urdu poetry and prose to disseminate its ideas.

  • As with the Bible and Shakespeare, his phrases have passed into the common speech, and are used by every one (even in Urdu) without being conscious of their origin.

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Words near urdu in the Dictionary