name
Meaning 1
The Southern Tibetan language of these people.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
Sherpa
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.
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US: /ˈʃɝpə/
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/ˈʃɜː(ɹ)pə/
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Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
noun
Meaning 2
A member of a particular Himalayan ethnic group living in Nepal and Tibet, known especially as mountaineers.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A high-ranking government official who works tirelessly in the background to conclude the text of an official communiqué, typically from a G7 or G20 summit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A local mountain guide or porter, particularly a male of the Nepalese Sherpa people so employed.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
An expert accompanying a high-ranking leader to a summit meeting.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
A synthetic fabric with a long, thick pile, similar to faux fur, imitation lamb wool, or fleece.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To serve as a guide or porter for another.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: rare
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
a member of the Himalayan people living in Nepal and Tibet who are famous for their skill as mountaineers
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: Asian, Asiatic
Narrower terms: Tenzing Norgay
History
Etymology
From Tibetan ཤར་པ། (shar pa, literally “eastern people”), from ཤར (shar, “east”) + པ (pa, nominalizing suffix). The reason for this derivation is unclear, but a common explanation notes that the Sherpas originated in eastern Tibet. The community is based in the Nepalese highlands, however, which is south of Tibet.
From Sherpa. The verb derives from the noun.
Across languages
Translations
42 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Catalan: xerpa — language
- Finnish: šerpa — language
- German: Sherpa — language
- Nepali: शेर्पा भाषा (śerpā bhāṣā) — language
- Portuguese: xerpa — language
- Russian: шерпский (šerpskij) — language
- Sherpa: शेर्वी तम्ङे (sherwī tamnge) — language
- Tibetan: ཤར་པའི་སྐད (shar pa'i skad) — language
- Catalan: xerpa — member of an ethnic group
- Chinese Mandarin: 夏爾巴人 /夏尔巴人 (Xià'ěrbā Rén) — member of an ethnic group
- German: Sherpa — member of an ethnic group
- Hindi: शेर्पा (śerpā) — member of an ethnic group
- Hungarian: serpa — member of an ethnic group
- Nepali: शेर्पा (śerpā) — member of an ethnic group
- Polish: Szerpa — member of an ethnic group
- Polish: Szerpijka — member of an ethnic group
- Portuguese: xerpa — member of an ethnic group
- Russian: ше́рпа (šérpa) — member of an ethnic group
- Sherpa: ཤེརཔཱ (sherp̄) — member of an ethnic group
- Sherpa: शेर्पा (sherpā) — member of an ethnic group
- Spanish: sherpa — member of an ethnic group
- Tibetan: ཤར་བ (shar ba) — member of an ethnic group
- Albanian: sherpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Catalan: xerpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Czech: šerpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Czech: sherpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Czech: nosič — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Dutch: sjerpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Dutch: sherpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Finnish: sherpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Hungarian: serpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Nepali: शेर्पा (śerpā) — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Portuguese: xerpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Romanian: șerpaș — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Russian: ше́рпа (šérpa) — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Russian: проводни́к-ше́рпа (provodník-šérpa) — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Sicilian: xerpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Spanish: sherpa — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Spanish: tlameme — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Tibetan: ཤར་པ (shar pa) — local employed as mountain guide/ porter
- Russian: шерп (šerp) — expert
- Russian: ше́рпа (šérpa) — expert
Real reading context