yashmak means A veil worn by Muslim women to cover parts of the face when they are in public. It carries an Arena rating of 1321, earned across 93 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, yashmak ranks #2,032 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #2,048 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #4,229 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #6,402 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
yashmak is pronounced /ˈjæʃ.mæk/.
Why “yashmak” is a great word
YASHMAK — [Noun] A traditional face veil, consisting of two separate pieces of fabric that cover the face below the eyes. From Turkish yaşmak (meaning "veil" or "to hide"). First recorded in English use 1835–45. Unlike the hijab, which drapes the hair and neck, or the niqab, a single-piece face covering, the yashmak is a specific, bipartite screen. It is the faint rustle of starched muslin, the glint of watchful eyes above a field of white linen, and the intricate choreography of adjusting two layers in a crowded bazaar—a partitioned geography where what is concealed defines what is seen.
Etymology
From Turkish yaşmak.
noun
- A veil worn by Muslim women to cover parts of the face when they are in public.e.g.“Through her gauzy yashmak I could see that she was smiling.” — 1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page ix. 88:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- yashmaked 84% match — Wearing a yashmak. vs yashmak →
- niqab 63% match — A veil which covers the face (except for the eyes), worn by some Muslim women as a part of sartorial hijab. vs yashmak →
- ferace 59% match — A long coat, part of the traditional dress of Muslim women. vs yashmak →
- niqabi 59% match — A Muslim woman wearing a niqab. vs yashmak →
- niqabed 58% match — Wearing a niqab. vs yashmak →
- burqa 57% match — An enveloping Central Asian garment which covers the whole body, incorporating a netted screen to cover the eyes, chiefly worn by women in fundamentalist denominations of Islam to observe sartorial hijab (the practice of wearing concealing clothing in front of adult men after the age of puberty). vs yashmak →
- babushkaed 56% match — Wearing a babushka (headscarf). vs yashmak →
- calash 56% match — A silk and whalebone hood worn by ladies to shade the face. vs yashmak →