Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

chawl

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.30 in modern English

Syllables: chawl
IPA

13

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A type of residential tenement building found in India, typically for poor working-class people.

noun

British usage

noun

Jowl; cheek; face.

British usage

Example Sentences

"I came from a chawl, and when I started out main zyada baat nahi karta tha, mera haath zyada chalta tha (both laugh!"
"Dhirubhai Ambani's first home in Mumbai was nearly as humble as the ones the gawking labourers inhabit: a pigeonhole chawl four kilometres from Antilia, in the pushcart-clogged trading neighbourhood of Bhuleshwar."

Etymology

Borrowed from Marathi चाळ (cāḷ), from Sanskrit. Doublet of cell.

Origin

Source language: Sanskrit

Word Breakdown

Root: चाळ, -, chaule, ċeafl

Usage

British usage

Inflected Forms

chawls (plural)

Questions

What does chawl mean?: A type of residential tenement building found in India, typically for poor working-class people.
Where does chawl come from?: It is traced to Sanskrit.

How to pronounce chawl

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “chawl”.
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