sheik

• sheikh, shaykh

From Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ, “elder”). Sense 4 (“a romantic lover”) is from the 1921 film The Sheik.

• IPA^(key): /ʃeɪk/, /ʃik/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk
• Homophones: shake, chic (different pronunciations)

sheik (plural sheiks)

1. The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe.
   • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Numa ‘El Adrea’”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 120:

     Tarzan, who, by this time, with the assistance of Abdul, had picked up quite a smattering of Arab, questioned one of the younger men who had accompanied the sheik while the latter paid his respects to Captain Gerard.

2. An Islamic religious cleric; the leader of an Islamic religious order.
   • 2013 August 1, Islamic Online University Insights‎^[1], archived from the original on 25 October 2021, page 10:

     He then studied under a variety of scholars (shuyook) and institutes around the world in his quest for authentic knowledge.

3. (some Arab Gulf countries) An official title for members of the royal family as well as some prominent families.
5. (1920s) A romantic lover.
   • 1939, George Orwell, Coming Up for Air, part 1, chapter 1:

     When your last natural tooth goes, the time when you can kid yourself that you're a Hollywood sheik, is definitely at an end.

6. (slang) An Arab, especially one dressed in traditional clothing.
7. An honorific for specialists in spirituality, for example in Sufism.

The title is commonly used for religious leaders as an expression of respect, in which case it does not imply an official status.

• sheikha

• shiek, hikes, Seikh

From Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ).

• IPA^(key): [ˈɕɑjˀɡ]

sheik c (singular definite sheiken, plural indefinite sheiker)

1. sheik

   Coordinate terms: emir, sultan

2. (informal) a handsome young man
   1. (informal) a girl's boyfriend

• oliesheik
• sheikdømme

• “sheik” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ), from شَاخَ (šāḵa, “to age, grow old”).

• (Netherlands) IPA^(key): /ʃɛi̯k/
• (East and West Flanders) IPA^(key): /ʃɛːk/
• Rhymes: -ɛi̯k

sheik m (plural sheiks, diminutive sheikje n)

1. sheik

Unadapted borrowing from Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ).

sheik m (plural sheiks)

1. alternative form of xeique

   Coordinate terms: emir, sultão

• shekh, sheikh

Borrowed from Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ).

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

sheik class V (plural masheik class VI)

1. sheik

   Synonym: shehe