# Cathay

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /kæˈθeɪ/ · frequency rank #37,846

## Definitions
1. China, specifically medieval northern China as reached by the overland Silk Road to Xi'an or Beijing, not known at the time to be related to southern China as reached by the maritime routes to Guangzhou.
2. A settlement in North Dakota.
3. Ellipsis of Cathay Pacific.

## Etymology
From Latin Cathaya, variant of Cataya, from Old Turkic 𐰶𐰃𐱃𐰪 (Qïtań), and ultimately from Khitan 𘱿𘲫 (*qid ún); the Khitan people who conquered northern China as the Liao dynasty in the 10th century and ruled the central Asian Qara Khitai Khanate in the 12th, just prior to the overland European missions to China occasioned by the Pax Mongolica. Most likely cognate with Mongolian хутга (xutga, “knife”) from Proto-Mongolic *kïtuga.
Doublet of Khitan. Cognate with Russian Кита́й (Kitáj, “China”). See Names of China.

## Easily confused with
- **Cathy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cathay-vs-cathy)
- **catty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cathay-vs-catty)
- **Chatham** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cathay-vs-chatham)
- **Cath** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/cath-vs-cathay)
- **catchy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/catchy-vs-cathay)

## Common misspellings (9)
`acthay`, `cahtay`, `catahy`, `cathayy`, `cathhay`, `cathya`, `catthay`, `ccathay`, `ctahay`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/cathay