VARNA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Varna mean? 

• VARNA (noun)
  The noun VARNA has 2 senses:

1. a port city in northeastern Bulgaria on the Black Sea

2. (Hinduism) the name for the original social division of Vedic people into four groups (which are subdivided into thousands of jatis)

  Familiarity information: VARNA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VARNA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A port city in northeastern Bulgaria on the Black Sea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

city; metropolis; urban center (a large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts)

port (a place (seaport or airport) where people and merchandise can enter or leave a country)

Holonyms ("Varna" is a part of...):

Bulgaria; Republic of Bulgaria (a republic in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(Hinduism) the name for the original social division of Vedic people into four groups (which are subdivided into thousands of jatis)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("varna" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Meronyms (members of "varna"):

jati ((Hinduism) a Hindu caste or distinctive social group of which there are thousands throughout India; a special characteristic is often the exclusive occupation of its male members (such as barber or potter))

Domain category:

Hindooism; Hinduism (a body of religious and philosophical beliefs and cultural practices native to India and based on a caste system; it is characterized by a belief in reincarnation, by a belief in a supreme being of many forms and natures, by the view that opposing theories are aspects of one eternal truth, and by a desire for liberation from earthly evils)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "varna"):

brahman; brahmin (the highest of the four varnas: the priestly or sacerdotal category)

rajanya (the second highest of the four varnas: the noble or warrior category)

vaisya (the third of the four varnas: the commoners or yeoman farmers or mercantile and professional category)

shudra; sudra (the lowest of the four varnas: the servants and workers of low status)

 Context examples 

There must be no chance lost, and in Varna we must be ready to act the instant when that ship arrives.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This is written in the train from Varna to Galatz.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Then we shall at any rate be in Varna a day before the ship arrives, and able to make such preparations as may be necessary.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He told them what Mina had said, and went on:—In the morning we shall leave for Varna.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The owner gave him a paper telling the Captain to give him every facility in doing whatever he chose on board the ship, and also a similar authorisation to his agent at Varna.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The delay of arrival at Varna made us individually satisfied that things would not be just as we had expected; we only waited to learn where the change would occur.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It turns out that the schooner is a Russian from Varna, and is called the Demeter.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Of one thing I am now satisfied: that all the boxes which arrived at Whitby from Varna in the Demeter were safely deposited in the old chapel at Carfax.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It is evident that the Czarina Catherine is still at sea, hastening on her way to Varna.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In the meantime we can do nothing here; and as I think that Varna is not familiar to any of us, why not go there more soon?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)