Urdu

Dictionary: Ur·du (ʊr'dū, ûr'-) pronunciation

n.
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.

[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).]

Urdu Ur'du adj.

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Columbia Encyclopedia:

Urdu

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Urdu (ūr'dū), language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The official tongue of Pakistan, Urdu is also one of the 15 languages recognized in the 1950 Indian constitution. Urdu has been described as the written or literary variant of Hindustani that is used by Muslims. It is written in a modified form of the Arabic alphabet, and its basically Indic vocabulary has been enriched by borrowings from Arabic and Persian. Grammatically and phonetically, however, Urdu is an Indic language. About 100 million persons in Pakistan and India understand Urdu.

Bibliography

See M. C. Saihgal, Hindustani Grammar (Urdu edition, 1945); E. Bender, Urdu Grammar and Reader (1967); F. Southworth, Student's Hindi-Urdu Reference Manual (1971); W. Bright and S. A. Kahn, The Urdu Writing System (1976).

WordNet:

Urdu

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the official literary language of Pakistan, closely related to Hindi; widely used in India (mostly by Moslems); written in Arabic script

The adjective Urdu has one meaning:

Meaning #1: relating to the Urdu language
Pertains to noun: Urdu (meaning #1)

Translations:

Urdu

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Urdu

Dansk (Danish)
n. - Urdu (sprog i Pakistan)

Nederlands (Dutch)
Urdu (taal in Pakistan)

Français (French)
n. - Urdu

Deutsch (German)
n. - Urdu

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ουρντού, ινδουστανική (γλώσσα)

Italiano (Italian)
urdu

Português (Portuguese)
n. - urdu (m) (língua)

Русский (Russian)
язык урду

Español (Spanish)
n. - urdu

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - urdu (språk)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
乌尔都语

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 烏都語

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 우르두말(Hindustani 말의 일종이며 파키스탄의 공용어)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ウルドゥー語

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) اللغه الارديه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אורדו - שפה קרובה להינדית המשמשת כשפה רשמית בפקיסטן‬

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	Hindi-Urdu (Hindi and Urdu)
	Izzat
	Pakpattan

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more