houri

[ hoor-ee, houuhr-ee, hou-uh-ree ]

/ ˈhʊər i, ˈhaʊər i, ˈhaʊ ə ri /

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noun, plural hou·ris.

one of the beautiful virgins provided in paradise for all faithful Muslims.

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Origin of houri

1730–40; <French <Persian hūrī<Arabic ḥūr plural of ḥaurāʾ gazelle-eyed (woman)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use houri in a sentence

Does Allah rain houris in youths' clothes upon the waste land betwixt Sermada and Harenc?
God Wills It!|William Stearns Davis
When satiated with earthly felicity, may you be received in paradise by seventy dark-eyed houris—'
It Is Never Too Late to Mend|Charles Reade
He was dreaming, perchance, of the rosy bowers and the dark-eyed houris of Paradise.
Jack Harkaway's Boy Tinker Among The Turks|Bracebridge Hemyng
I never saw a man in such a state as Fitzroy Timmins in the presence of those ravishing houris.
A Little Dinner at Timmins's|William Makepeace Thackeray

Or the believer, dying in battle for the creed of the Faithful, might expect to wake up in a celestial harem peopled with Houris.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 97, November, 1865|Various

British Dictionary definitions for houri

houri

/ (ˈhʊərɪ) /

noun plural -ris

(in Muslim belief) any of the nymphs of Paradise

any alluring woman

Word Origin for houri

C18: from French, from Persian hūri, from Arabic hūr, plural of haurā' woman with dark eyes

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012