Meanings
balti1
plural baltis
- uncountableA style of curry traditionally cooked in a balti pan, typically stir-fried and served with a relatively dry sauce.
For in time, balti became an enduring British cultural entity all of its own—even as Jim Davidson and his fellow bullies lapsed into obscurity.
2021, Otto English, Fake History, page 136 - countableA dish cooked in this style.
Balti2
- not comparableOf, from or relating to Baltistan.
Like most Balti homes, this one has no chimney, since heat would escape and fuel is scarce.
1987 October, Galen Rowell, “Baltistan: The 20th Century Comes to Shangri-la”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 536
- Their language.
Origin
- Urduبالٹی“pail”
- Englishbalti
From Urdu بالٹی (baalti, “pail”), originally coined by Birmingham restaurateur Afzal Butt because English people had difficulty pronouncing karahi, the name of the dish used for cooking this food.
More words from Urdu
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with balti
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
balti. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/balti
“balti.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/balti. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “balti,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/balti.
Source: balti on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.