Meaning & use
fakir
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Meanings
nouncountablereligion
A holy man in the Muslim or Hindu traditions who lives a simple life of poverty and prayer, often depending on charity.
Grammar: Used mostly in historical or cultural writing; avoid using it casually.
Patterns
- a fakir from somewhere
The fakir sat by the roadside, accepting offerings of rice.
A wandering fakir was said to bring blessings.
Travelers in the nineteenth century wrote about meeting a fakir.
nouncountableold-fashioned
A street performer or showman who performs feats such as walking on hot coals or lying on nails.
Grammar: A stereotyped Western use; the religious meaning is more accurate.
Patterns
- a fakir performs something
The circus advertised a fakir who could lie on a bed of nails.
Old postcards show a fakir swallowing swords.
The film featured a fakir charming a snake.
Word forms
| plural | fakirs |
|---|
Common combinations
- wandering fakir
- A wandering fakir visited the village each spring.
- Sufi fakir
- The Sufi fakir lived at the shrine.
- a fakir's bed of nails
- The magazine showed a fakir's bed of nails.
- Hindu fakir
- The traveler described a Hindu fakir in his diary.
- fakir and mystic
- The book contrasts a fakir and a mystic.
Synonyms and how they differ
- ascetic
- Ascetic is the general word for anyone who gives up comforts for religious reasons, while fakir names a figure from South Asian traditions.
- dervish
- A dervish belongs to a particular Sufi order, often known for whirling dances, whereas a fakir is more generally a poor holy man.
- sadhu
- Sadhu is the Hindu term for a holy man who has renounced worldly life and is more respectful in modern usage.
- mendicant
- Mendicant means a person living on begging, usually in a religious order, and is a broader term.
Word family
Commonly confused: fakir or faker?
fakir vs faker
A faker is someone who pretends to be something they are not, while a fakir is a religious ascetic. The words sound alike but are unrelated.
Practice
The historian described a ____, a holy man who owned almost nothing and lived on gifts from villagers.
Choose one answer.
A fakir is an ascetic who depends on charity. A tycoon and merchant are wealthy traders, and a sultan is a ruler, so none fits.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fakir”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.