Hindi

[ hin-dee ]

noun

1. the most widely spoken of the modern Indic vernaculars, especially its best-known variety, Western Hindi.
2. a literary language derived from Hindustani, used by Hindus.

Hindi

/ ˈhɪndɪ /

noun

1. See Hindustani
   a language or group of dialects of N central India. It belongs to the Indic branch of the Indo-European family and is closely related to Urdu See also Hindustani
2. a formal literary dialect of this language, the official language of India, usually written in Nagari script
3. a person whose native language is Hindi

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hindi¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; from Hindi, Urdu, equivalent to Persian Hind, Hindu (compare Sanskrit Sindhu “river,” specifically the Indus river, with the extended sense “region of the Indus; Sind”) + -ī a suffix indicating relationship or origin; replacing Hinduee, from Persian Hinduī; Sind

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hindi¹

C18: from Hindi hindī, from Hind India, from Old Persian Hindu the river Indus

Example Sentences

He taught himself Hindi and English, attaining such a level of proficiency that he later performed in both languages.

From Time

All these conveniences are powered by language-specific AI programs, and they’re available to more than 4 billion speakers of languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi.

From Quartz

As recounted in the Hindi-language film Shakuntala Devi, available with subtitles on Amazon Prime, she could make complex mental calculations at a rapid-fire pace, even as a small child.

From Science News

India’s Flipkart bets on free video streaming service and Hindi support to win next 200 million internet usersOn Friday, Madhavan Malolan announced CreatorOS, a platform that enables creators to build, manage and grow their businesses.

From TechCrunch

In Hindi and a number of other languages derived from Sanskrit, namaste is basically a respectful way of saying hello and also goodbye.

From No Straight News

The most notorious enforcers of honor codes are unelected “village councils,” referred to as khap panchayats in Hindi.

From The Daily Beast

In Hindi, dhoom means blast, and this movie may indeed be a blast.

From The Daily Beast

Locals used to teach British officers Arabic, Hindi, Urdu and Persian.

From The Daily Beast

“Badmashi” means a “goon” in the Urdu and Hindi parlance of the subcontinent.

From The Daily Beast

UPDATE, Dec. 18, 2011: In Urdu and Hindi, languages of India and Pakistan, the word for "drama" is "tamasha."

From The Daily Beast

As vernacular languages were used for poetry, problems of Hindi composition began to dwarf those of Sanskrit.

From Project Gutenberg

It is really a camp language made up of Sanscrit, Persian, Hindi and many other tongues.

From Project Gutenberg

I often saw him teaching the small boys to read the Hindi characters, which are the same as used for the written Tibetan language.

From Project Gutenberg

Here Bengali and Eastern Hindi exactly represent the ancient state of affairs.

From Project Gutenberg

Before that it was grouped with all the other languages spoken between Bengal and the Punjab, under the general term “Hindi.”

From Project Gutenberg