kirpan
/kɪə(ɹ)ˈpɑːn/noun
kirpan is a noun meaning “A ceremonial sword that must be worn at all times by baptized Sikhs, and one of the five Ks” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-I-R-P-A-N, and it appears about once in every 22 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of kirpan is kirpans.
What does kirpan mean?
noun
- 1
A ceremonial sword that must be worn at all times by baptized Sikhs, and one of the five Ks.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce kirpan?
- /kɪə(ɹ)ˈpɑːn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of kirpan
- kirpans plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is kirpan?
Kirpan appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 141,699th 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).
Kirpan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a ceremonial sword:
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 kirpan come from?
Borrowed from Punjabi ਕਿਰਪਾਨ (kirpān), from Sanskrit कृपाण (kṛpāṇa, “sword, dagger, sacrificial knife”), from कल्पयति (kalpáyati, “he orders, apportions, cuts, trims”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).