Standard Lemma guide

khat

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /kɑːt/
  • /kat/
  • /kæt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɑːt
  • rhymes with -æt
  • homophone: cat
  • homophone: Cat
  • homophone: kat
  • homophone: cart
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A shrub, Catha edulis, whose leaves are used as a mild stimulant when chewed or brewed as tea; also a drug produced from this plant.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Bushman's tea, miraa

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the leaves of the shrub Catha edulis which are chewed like tobacco or used to make tea; has the effect of a euphoric stimulant

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • in Yemen kat is used daily by 85% of adults

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: kat, qat, quat, cat, Arabian tea, African tea

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: stimulant, stimulant drug, excitant

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic قَات (qāt).

Across languages

Translations

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: boesmanstee — Catha edulis
  • Amharic: ጫት (č̣at) — Catha edulis
  • Arabic: قات (qāt) — Catha edulis
  • Chinese Mandarin: 巧茶 (qiǎochá) — Catha edulis
  • Czech: kata jedlá — Catha edulis
  • Danish: kat — Catha edulis
  • Danish: khat — Catha edulis
  • Dutch: qat — Catha edulis
  • Esperanto: ĉato — Catha edulis
  • Estonian: katapõõsas — Catha edulis
  • Finnish: khat — Catha edulis
  • Finnish: kati — Catha edulis
  • Finnish: katpensas — Catha edulis
  • Finnish: khatpensas — Catha edulis
  • French: qat — Catha edulis
  • French: khat — Catha edulis
  • Galician: qat — Catha edulis
  • Georgian: კათი (ḳati) — Catha edulis
  • German: Kathstrauch — Catha edulis
  • Hebrew: קאת — Catha edulis
  • Hungarian: kat — Catha edulis
  • Icelandic: khat — Catha edulis
  • Indonesian: qat — Catha edulis
  • Irish: cait — Catha edulis
  • Japanese: チャット — Catha edulis
  • Japanese: カート — Catha edulis
  • Japanese: アラビアチャノキ — Catha edulis
  • Javanese: khat — Catha edulis
  • Korean: 까트 (kkateu) — Catha edulis
  • Latvian: katas koks — Catha edulis
  • Lithuanian: arabinis dusūnas — Catha edulis
  • Malay: qat — Catha edulis
  • Norwegian: khat — Catha edulis
  • Pashto: قات — Catha edulis
  • Persian: قات — Catha edulis
  • Polish: czuwaliczka jadalna — Catha edulis
  • Portuguese: khat — Catha edulis
  • Russian: кат (kat) — Catha edulis
  • Sinhalese: කාට් (kāṭ) — Catha edulis
  • Somali: qaad — Catha edulis
  • Somali: jaad — Catha edulis
  • Swahili: miraa — Catha edulis
  • Swedish: kat — Catha edulis
  • Thai: คัต (kát) — Catha edulis
  • Thai: แกต (gɛ̀ɛt) — Catha edulis
  • Turkish: gat — Catha edulis
  • Ukrainian: кат (kat) — Catha edulis
  • Urdu: قات (qāt) — Catha edulis
  • Vietnamese: lá khát — Catha edulis
  • Zulu: umhlwazi — Catha edulis
  • German: Kat — drug
  • Swedish: kat — drug