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Kushan

UK /ˈkʊʃɑːn/noun, adjective

Kushan is a noun meaning “A member of an ancient Central Asian tribe; later, a member of the ruling dynasty and people of the Kushan Empire” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled K-U-S-H-A-N and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of Kushan is Kushans.

What does Kushan mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A member of an ancient Central Asian tribe; later, a member of the ruling dynasty and people of the Kushan Empire.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or relating to the Kushans or their realm.

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

How do you pronounce Kushan?

  • UK /ˈkʊʃɑːn/
  • UK /kʊˈʃɑːn/

Kushan has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

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

Forms of Kushan

  • Kushans plural
  • more Kushan comparative
  • most Kushan superlative

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

How common is Kushan?

Kushan appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 117,098th 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).

Kushan in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
FrenchKouchan, Kouchane, Kushan, Kushane (member of ancient Central Asian tribe; member…), kouchan, kushan (of or relating to the Kushans or their realm)
Germankuschanisch (of or relating to the Kushans or their realm)

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 Kushan come from?

From Sanskrit कुषाण (kuṣāṇa) via Hindi कुषाण (kuṣāṇ), or from Middle Persian [script needed] (kušān /⁠kwšn⁠/), either way from Bactrian Κοϸανο (Košano), ultimately from Chinese 貴霜／贵霜 (Guìshuāng) (compare Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit guṣāṇa). Doublet of Kushana. The conventional name Kushan and the proposed connection with the Chinese term are due to Alexander Cunningham's Coins of the Indo-Scythians, Sakas & Kushans (1899).

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