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Khazar

Kha·zar/kəˈzɑːɹ/noun, adjective

Khazar is a noun meaning “A member of a seminomadic Turkic tribe that occupied a large part of southwestern Russia and Ukraine (Khazaria)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-H-A-Z-A-R and has 2 syllables (Kha·zar), and it appears about once in every 12 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of Khazar is Khazars.

What does Khazar mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A member of a seminomadic Turkic tribe that occupied a large part of southwestern Russia and Ukraine (Khazaria).

  2. 2

    derogatoryoffensiveslangA Jew, particularly of Ashkenazi origin, by reference to a discredited, racist myth of their origin in Europe.

    The Khazars have been hogging public services.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or relating to Khazars.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce Khazar?

  • UK /kəˈzɑː/
  • US /kəˈzɑːɹ/

Khazar has 2 syllables, split Kha·zar in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Khazar.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of Khazar

  • Khazars plural
  • Chazar
  • Chozar
  • Khozar
  • Xazar

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is Khazar?

Khazar appears about once in every 12 million words in written English, the 105,204th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Khazar in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchkhazar (member of a seminomadic Turkic tribe)
GermanChasar, Chasarin (member of a seminomadic Turkic tribe), chasarisch (of or relating to Khazars)
Spanishjázaro, jazar (member of a seminomadic Turkic tribe)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does Khazar come from?

The origin is unknown. Attested as Arabic خَزَر (ḵazar), Byzantine Greek Χάζαροι (Kházaroi), Hebrew כּוּזָרִים (Kuzarim), Middle Chinese 突厥曷薩 (*tʰuət̚-kɨut̚ ɦɑt̚-sɑt̚) and Middle Chinese 突厥可薩部 (*tʰuət̚-kɨut̚ kʰɑ^X-sɑt̚ buo^X), Latin Gazari and Cosar, Old Armenian խազիրք (xazirkʻ), Old East Slavic козаринъ (kozarinŭ), Persian خزر (xazar), Russian хаза́р (xazár), Tatar хәзәр (xäzär), Turkish Hazar, etc. Compare Old Uyghur 𐰴𐱁𐰺 (qšr¹), Middle Persian [script needed] (Kesar), Tibetan [script needed] (ge-sar). See Wikipedia's article for etymology.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).