ghat

Etymology

From Hindi घाट (ghāṭ, “pier”), from Sanskrit घट्ट (ghaṭṭa, “a landing-place, steps on the side of a river leading to the waters”). Perhaps related to Telugu కట్ట (kaṭṭa, “dam, embankment”).

noun

  1. (India) A descending path or stairway to a river; a ford or landing-place.
    The abrupt escarpment of the western Ghats condenses so much of the moisture of the south-west monsoon 1855, Joseph Dalton Hooker, Flora Indica
    Chunks of wood were being built into funeral pyres on the steps of the ghat that went down into the water; four bodies were burning on the ghat steps when we got there. 2008, Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger, Atlantic, published 2009, page 16
  2. (India) A mountain range.
    And farther south, in the interior of the Peninsula, in the elevated tract from 1200 to 2400 feet above the sea, between the Eastern and Western Ghats 1885, Edward Balfour, Cyclopaedia of India
  3. (India) A mountain pass.
  4. (Caribbean) A steep ravine leading to the sea.
  5. (India) A burning-ghat.

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