raj
noun
(in India) rule, especially the British rule prior to 1947.
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Rajm.
raj
American
[rahj]
/ rɑdʒ /
noun
(often initial capital letter)
Raj
1
British
/ rɑːdʒ /
noun
raj
2
British
/ rɑːdʒ /
noun
Etymology
Origin of raj
1790–1800; < Hindi rāj < Pali, Prakrit rajja < Sanskrit rājya kingdom, rule
Explanation
The raj was the period in history when the British Empire ruled over a region of South Asia that includes the modern countries of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In Hindi, raj means "rule" or "kingdom." Britain's control over the Indian subcontinent during the 19th and 20th centuries was officially known as British India, but it was commonly referred to as "the British Raj" or simply "the Raj." The raj officially began in 1858, and it lasted through 1947 when the region was split into two sovereign states, India and Pakistan. Today the former raj consists of five independent nations.
Vocabulary lists containing raj
South Asia - Middle School and High School
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History of India - Introductory
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Chapters 27–28
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The nizam juggled between his obligations to the colonial raj and to India’s rising pro-independence leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026
You don’t have to have grown up under the raj like, say, Kipling to think the city’s lush historic aura, and its towering monument the Gateway of India, are better conjured by the pre-1995 name.
From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2014
When the license-permit-quota raj was dismantled in the 1990s, it was expected that corruption would diminish.
From Newsweek ● Jun. 12, 2011
Further in, it's the raj of the "Dada log".
From The Guardian ● Mar. 27, 2010
Perhaps the Brahmins became aware that any foul play would bring the English raj down upon them.
From Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life by Margaret Elizabeth Leigh Child-Villiers
“StubHub was founded to make it easier and safer to buy tickets,” said Raj Beri, StubHub’s chief business officer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Canadian designers Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran founded the label after meeting as fashion students in Montreal.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2026
Raj, Ruby’s 4-year-old partner and father to her cubs, is now the only red panda left at the Santa Barbara Zoo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
"Nepal's government has not given any instructions to cancel it," Hem Raj Aryal, spokesperson at the prime minister's office, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 8, 2026
I don’t know who I’m expecting to see, but it certainly isn’t Raj.
From "The Fourteenth Goldfish" by Jennifer L. Holm
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
