caravansary

Also car·a·van·se·rai

[kar-uh-van-suh-ree]

noun

plural

caravansaries 

1. (in the Middle East and North Africa) an inn, usually with a large courtyard, for the overnight accommodation of caravans.

2. any large inn or hotel.

Other Word Forms

• caravanserial adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of caravansary¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; from French caravanserai, from Persian kārwānsarāy, equivalent to kārwān caravan + sarāy “mansion, inn”

Example Sentences

And though all three cities have centuries-old caravansaries — the famed inns where Silk Road merchants stayed — Ichan-Kala, a remnant of the ancient Khiva oasis, checkered with medieval Islamic buildings, appears completely untouched by time.

From New York Times

He was married now and partook zealously in the Manhattan social caravansary.

From New York Times

The town of hundreds of madrassas and caravansaries, and 100 or so mosques, had been subjected to the only fate worse than Genghis Khan’s, that fifth horseman of the apocalypse: tourism.

From New York Times

If this were the Sahara, caravansaries would have stopped by its green pools for thousands of years.

From Salon

This muscular president thought he had found his perfect foil: a veritable caravansary of the unclean, unsavory and un-American folks known as migrants.

From The Guardian