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lakh also lac

(läk, lăk)

n.
Chiefly South Asian

1. One hundred thousand: created three lakh jobs; worth one lakh fifty thousand rupees.

2. A large, indefinite number: lakhs of birds in the sky.

[Hindi and Urdu lākh, from Prakrit lakkha-, from Sanskrit lakṣaḥ, sign, token, prize, one hundred thousand; probably akin to Middle Persian daxšag, sign, and Hittite tekkušša-, to show.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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