دولت

• տէվլէթ (devlet) — Armeno-Turkish

Borrowed from Arabic دَوْلَة (dawla).

دولت • (devlet) (definite accusative دولتی (devleti), plural دول (düvel))

1. change; change for the better
2. prosperity
3. government
4. state

• دولتجه (devletce)
• دولتلی (devletli, “prosperous”)

• Turkish: devlet
• → Albanian: dovlet, daulet
• → Greek: δοβλέτι (dovléti), ντοβλέτι (ntovléti)
• → Romanian: devlet
• → Serbo-Croatian: dèvlet / дѐвлет

• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “دولت”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[1], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 926

Borrowed from Arabic دَوْلَة (dawla).

In medieval sources, it most commonly means "fortune" or "stroke of good fortune," especially associated with the ruling monarch. The word now means "state; government" due to metonymy: "the royal fortune" > "the king's dominion" > "the government of the king". Up to the nineteenth century, the ruling state was most often called دولت عالیه (dowlat-e âliyye, literally “the sublime fortune [of the king]”).

• Audio (Iran):

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دُوْلَت • (dowlat) (plural دولت‌ها, or دول (doval))

1. state, government

   کارمند دولت ― kârmand-e dowlat ― government employee

   دولت آن وقت ― dowlat-e ân vaqt ― the government at the time

   مجلس شورای اسلامی در ایران وظیفه قانون گذاری و نظارت بر دولت را دارد.

   majles-e šowrâ-ye eslâmi dar irân vazife-ye qânun-gozâri va nazârat bar dowlat râ dârad.

   The Islamic Consultative Assembly in Iran has the duties of lawmaking and supervision of the government.

2. dominion, rulership
3. (dated, literary) fortune, good fortune
   • early 1000s, ʿUnṣurī, “Panegyric 3”, in دیوان عنصری‎^[2]:

     گفتم او را چه خواهم از ایزد
     گفت عمر دراز و دولت شاب

     guftam ō rā či xwāham az ēzad
     guft umr-i darāz u dawlat-i šāb

     I said to him, "What do you desire from God?"
     He said, "A long life and the fortune of a youth!"

     (Classical romanization)

   • c. 1390, Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ, “Ghazal 392”, in دیوان حافظ [The Divān of Ḥāfiẓ]‎^[3]:

     دانی که چیست دولت؟ دیدار یار دیدن
     در کوی او گدایی بر خسروی گزیدن

     dānī ki čē-st dawlat? dīdār-i yār dīdan
     dar kōy-i ō gadāyī bar xusrawī guzīdan

     Do you know what fortune is? To see the beloved's face,
     To prefer begging in her street to being the king of kings.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

4. (dated, literary) wealth, (monetary) fortune, prosperity

• In contemporary Iranian contexts, the word دولت (dowlat, “government”) refers to that section of the government presided by the رئیس‌جمهور (ra'is-jomhur, “President”) and his cabinet. The word حکومت (hokumat, “state”) refers to the entirety of the governmental apparatus under the supervision of the رهبر (rahbar, “Supreme Leader”).

• Note that this usage is quite the opposite of the respective etyma دَوْلة (dawla) and حُكُومة (ḥukūma) in contemporary Arabic.

• In contemporary Tadjikistan, the word давлат (davlat, “government, state”) is often used as a synonymous for кишвар (kišvar, “country”).

Borrowed from Classical Persian دَولَت (dawlat), borrowed from Arabic دَوْلَة (dawla).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /d̪ɔː.lət̪/
• Rhymes: -ət̪
• Hyphenation: دَو‧لَت

دَولَت • (daulat) f (Hindi spelling दौलत)

1. wealth; riches; fortune
2. (by extension) power
3. prosperity, good fortune
4. (obsolete) government, state, dominion

• “دولت”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “دولت”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
• Fallon, Platts, Qureshi, Shakespear (2024) “دولت”, in Digital Dictionaries of South Asia [Combined Urdu Dictionaries]