bazaar means A marketplace, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia, and often covered with shops and stalls. It carries an Arena rating of 1500, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bazaar ranks #2,351 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #2,374 of 14,451 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,517 of 14,440 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,737 of 14,445 for Most Beautiful Words.
bazaar is pronounced /bəˈzɐː/.
Why “bazaar” is a great word
A marketplace, especially in the Middle East and South Asia, often consisting of a street lined with shops and stalls, or a sale of miscellaneous goods, often for charity. From Middle French bazar or Italian bazar, from Ottoman Turkish بازار (bazar), from Persian بازار (bâzâr, "market"), from Pahlavi vahā-čar ("place of prices"), first attested in English in 1612. Unlike "market" (a general term for commerce, devoid of regional texture) or "fair" (fleeting, festive, rooted in spectacle), a bazaar is a labyrinth of transaction and encounter: the air thickens with cumin and solder, light falls in dusty shafts over glittering brass, and every exchange hums with the intimate friction of haggling voices. It is the world's oldest mall, humming not with efficiency, but with the layered murmur of a thousand quiet stories over goods.
Etymology
From Middle French bazar or Italian bazar, from Ottoman Turkish بازار (bazar), from Persian بازار (bâzâr).
noun
- A marketplace, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia, and often covered with shops and stalls.
- A shop selling articles that are either exotic or eclectic.
- A fair or temporary market, often for charity.“...quoting a paragraph from the Morning Post which announced the intention of Lady Anne Granard, with her beautiful daughters, to preside at one of the stalls, at a grand fancy bazaar, in Kemp Town, which was expected to be the gayest scene and the most splendid assemblage of royalty and nobility ever beheld in Brighton.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- emporium 83% match — A city or region which is a major trading centre; also, a place within a city for commerce and trading; a marketplace. vs bazaar →
- caravanserai 82% match — A roadside inn, usually having a central courtyard where caravans (see sense 3) can rest, providing accommodation for travellers along trade routes in Asia and North Africa. vs bazaar →
- cheapstead 82% match — A marketplace. vs bazaar →
- maidan 82% match — A marketplace or other open space in or by a city or town; an esplanade. vs bazaar →
- serai 81% match — A palace. vs bazaar →
- muhtasib 81% match — An official appointed to supervise bazaars and trade in the medieval Islamic countries. vs bazaar →
- zocalo 80% match — A town square or marketplace, especially in Mexico. vs bazaar →
- chaiwallah 80% match — A tea vendor in South Asia. vs bazaar →