caste

CEFRC1

/kɑːst/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A social group whose members are born into a particular position.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A separate and fixed order or class of persons in society who chiefly associate with each other.

Examples

  • He's a member of the ancient priestly caste.

  • They have all converted to Islam, a religion that doesn't have a caste system.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /kast/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The division of society into castes; the caste system.

  2. Any of the hereditary social classes and subclasses of South Asian societies or similar found historically in other cultures.

  3. A class of polymorphous eusocial insects of a particular size and function within a colony.

More examples

In context

  • In beehives, most bees belong to the worker caste.

  • Pakistan is a conservative, religious state. The Edhi Foundation is unusual in its ignoring of caste, creed, religion and sect. This strict stance has led to some criticism from religious groups.

  • The tinkers then formed a hereditary caste.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In some societies, your blank determines your job and social standing from birth.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from Portuguese or Spanish casta (“lineage, breed, race”), which the OED derives from Portuguese casto (“chaste”), from Latin castus (“chaste"; "chastity”), Coromines (1987) argues instead for a hypothetical Gothic form *𐌺𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍃 (*kasts, “group, collection of animals”), cognate with English cast, from Proto-Germanic *kastuz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ǵ-es-.