somon

plural somons

1. alternativeAlternative form of sum (“Mongolian administrative division”), particularly in relation to Buryatia, Russia.

   Next day we drove through hilly pasture, in which we observed two large flocks of cranes, to Kharkorin, once the imperial city of Ogodei Khan, now a somon centre and state farm lying in a great plain encircled by mountains.

   1993, John Colvin, Twice Around the World: Some Memoirs of Diplomatic Life in North Vietnam and Outer Mongolia