کہانی

Urdu

Etymology

Feminine of کَہانا (kahānā), first attested in c. 1611 as Middle Hindi کَہانی (khany), inherited from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀓𑀥𑀸𑀡𑀕 (kadhāṇaga), from Sanskrit कथानक (kathānaka). Cognate with Punjabi کَہاݨی (kahāṇī) / ਕਹਾਣੀ (kahāṇī), Gujarati કહાણી (kahāṇī), Marathi कहाणी (kahāṇī), Odia କାହାଣୀ (kāhāṇi), Bengali কাহিনী (kahini), Assamese কাহিনী (kahini).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /kə.ɦɑː.niː/

• Audio (Pakistan):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iː
• Hyphenation: کَ‧ہا‧نی

Noun

کَہانی • (kahānī) f (Hindi spelling कहानी)

1. story, tale
2. an account, narrative (either in past or present)
3. plot (to a book, movie or some play etc.)
4. (figuratively) lie, fiction

Inflection

Declension of کہانی
	singular	plural
direct	کَہَانِی (kahānī)	کَہَانِِیاں (kahāniyā̃)
oblique	کَہَانِی (kahānī)	کَہَانِِیوں (kahāniyō̃)
vocative	کَہَانِی (kahānī)	کَہَانِِیو (kahāniyō)

Further reading

• “کہانی”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “کہانی”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2024.
• Qureshi, Bashir Ahmad (1971) “کہانی”, in Kitabistan's 20th Century Standard Dictionary‎, Lahore: Kitabistan Pub. Co.
• Platts, John T. (1884) “کہانی”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co.
• S. W. Fallon (1879) “کـﮩـانی”, in A New Hindustani-English Dictionary, Banaras, London: Trubner and Co.
• John Shakespear (1834) “كہاني”, in A dictionary, Hindustani and English: with a copious index, fitting the work to serve, also, as a dictionary of English and Hindustani, 3^rd edition, London: J.L. Cox and Son, →OCLC
• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “kathānaka”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press