Hindu Kush
"hindu-kush" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Hindu Kush” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A mountain range in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | Hindu Kush |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Hindu Kush” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
Hindu Kush is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A mountain range in Afghanistan and Pakistan.".
Hindu Kush has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: Ultimately derived from Classical Persian هِنْدُوکُش (hindūkuš), the etymology of which is uncertain. * According to Ibn Battuta and popular etymology, from Classical Persian هِنْدُو (hindū, “Hindu”) + کُش (kuš, present stem of کُشْتَن (kuštan, “to kill”)),… The correct English form is Hindu Kush, spelled H-I-N-D-U- -K-U-S-H.
Definition
- 1A mountain range in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Etymology
Ultimately derived from Classical Persian هِنْدُوکُش (hindūkuš), the etymology of which is uncertain. * According to Ibn Battuta and popular etymology, from Classical Persian هِنْدُو (hindū, “Hindu”) + کُش (kuš, present stem of کُشْتَن (kuštan, “to kill”)), literally “Hindu-killer”. * According to others, a corruption of Classical Persian هِنْدُوکوه (hindūkōh), itself a compound of هِنْدُو (hindū, “Hindu”) + کوه (kōh, “mountain”), literally “mountain of the Hindus”, in which case the name would be related to the term Hindkowan used to describe people living near the region who speak Hindko. Attested in English from the 18th century.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “Hindu Kush”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-I-N-D-U- -K-U-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.