ghat

Or ghaut

[gawt, got]

noun

1. a wide set of steps descending to a river, especially a river used for bathing.

2. a mountain pass.

3. a mountain range or escarpment.

ghat

/ ɡɔːt /

noun

1. stairs or a passage leading down to a river

2. a mountain pass or mountain range

3. a place of cremation

Word History and Origins

Origin of ghat¹

1595–1605; < Hindi ghāṭ < Sanskrit ghaṭṭa

Word History and Origins

Origin of ghat¹

C17: from Hindi ghāt, from Sanskrit ghatta

Example Sentences

While filming a wildlife documentary in India's western ghats, Robin Darius Conz saw a tiger on a hillside overlooking a town.

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Beyond its ghats and its timeless churn of bathing pilgrims, holy men and beggars stands a gleaming promenade, renovated by Adityanath in 2019.

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As I approached the center of the complex, the crowds pressed closer together, filling every inch of the paths and ghats, a term for stairways in the Indian subcontinent, lining the sacred Bagmati River.

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I’ve been there myself, and while I remember the spiritual light on the steps of the riverfront ghats, my American tourist recollections are mainly of sensory overload and crowds.

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Now the ghats are nearly empty, but the public crematoriums are busy around-the-clock.

Read more on Washington Post