chawl

C3H4A1W4L1

noun

A type of residential tenement building found in India, typically for poor working-class people.

OriginMarathi चाळ →
Scrabble 13
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Meanings

chawl1

nounchawl (plural chawls)

plural chawls

  1. A type of residential tenement building found in India, typically for poor working-class people.

    I came from a chawl, and when I started out main zyada baat nahi karta tha, mera haath zyada chalta tha (both laugh!

    2016 June 19, “Tiger Shroff: My father is the original hero, he doesn’t have to try like me. I fake it.”, in The Times of India
    1 more example

    Dhirubhai Ambani's first home in Mumbai was nearly as humble as the ones the gawking labourers inhabit: a pigeonhole chawl four kilometres from Antilia, in the pushcart-clogged trading neighbourhood of Bhuleshwar.

    2017, Sunil Khilnani, Incarnations, Penguin, page 419

chawl2

nounchawl (plural chawls)

plural chawls

  1. UKdialectalJaw or cheek.
  2. UKdialectalJowl; cheek; face.

Origin

chawl · noun

  1. Marathiचाळ
  2. Englishchawl

Borrowed from Marathi चाळ (cāḷ), from Sanskrit. Doublet of cell.

More words from Marathi

Full word history & related roots →

chawl · noun

  1. Old Englishċeafl“jaw, jowl”
  2. Middle Englishchaule
  3. Englishchawl

From Middle English chaule, chavel, from Old English ċeafl (“jaw, jowl”). More at jowl.

More words from Middle English, Old English

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Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Walch
Cite this entry
APA

chawl. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chawl

MLA

“chawl.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chawl. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chawl,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chawl.

Source: chawl on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.