Turkestan

American

[tur-kuh-stan, -stahn, tur-kuh-stan, -stahn] / ˈtɜr kəˌstæn, -ˌstɑn, ˌtɜr kəˈstæn, -ˈstɑn /

Or Turkistan

noun

a vast region in western and central Asia, east of the Caspian Sea: includes territory in the south central part of Xinjiang province in China Eastern Turkestan or Chinese Turkestan, a strip of northern Afghanistan, and the area Russian Turkestan comprising the republics of Kazakhstan, Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan), Tadzhikistan (Tajikistan), Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Turkestan British

/ ˌtɜːkɪˈstɑːn /

noun

an extensive region of central Asia between Siberia in the north and Tibet, India, Afghanistan, and Iran in the south: formerly divided into West ( Russian ) Turkestan (also called Soviet Central Asia), comprising present-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan and the S part of Kazakhstan, and East ( Chinese ) Turkestan , approximating to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China

"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

Other Word Forms

Turkestanian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Turkestan

First recorded in 1710–20; from Persian Torkestān; literally, “land of the Turks”

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023