bindi

IPA/ˈbɪndi/
IPA/ˈbɪndi/

bindi — noun

  • bindisingular
  • bindisplural

1. a coloured dot, often red, or a small decorative jewel that South Asian women, p

1.noun
Definition

a coloured dot, often red, or a small decorative jewel that South Asian women, particularly Hindus, place on the forehead just above the space between the eyes; in many traditions it signals that the wearer is married, though today people of any age also wear it as fashion or a sign of cultural identity.

Example

Priya pressed a bright red bindi onto her forehead before the family wedding began.

verb pattern: press / place a bindi onto the forehead

Many Hindu women in this village wear a bindi every day to show they are married.

collocation: wear a bindi

Common collocations
  • red bindi
  • wear a bindi
  • stick-on bindi
  • between the eyebrows
  • small bindi
Synonyms
  • tilak

    a related forehead mark, often religious and applied by men too; usually a vertical line or smear of paste rather than a dot or jewel

  • bindu

    the Sanskrit root meaning 'dot'; rarely used in everyday English

Grammar Patterns

wear a bindi

Usage Note

Subject is typically a South Asian woman, most often Hindu; the noun is countable and pluralises as 'bindis'. Frequently appears with verbs of placing or wearing (wear, put on, press, stick) and with colour or material adjectives (red, gold, silver, stick-on).

Common Mistakes

She wore a bindi on her cheek.
She wore a bindi on her forehead, just above her eyebrows.
a bindi is specifically placed between or just above the eyebrows, not anywhere on the face.
He put a bindi between his eyes for the wedding.
His sister put a bindi between her eyes for the wedding.
bindis are traditionally worn by women, not men; using a male subject without context can sound wrong.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All three words come from South Asian traditions, but they are not interchangeable. A bindi is the everyday English term for the small coloured dot or decorative jewel that women, mainly Hindus, place between or just above the eyebrows; modern bindis are often stick-on and treated as fashion. A tilak is a religious mark, usually a vertical line, smear, or pattern of paste, ash, or sandalwood, applied during prayers or ceremonies and worn by men as well as women. Bindu is the Sanskrit root meaning 'dot' or 'point' and appears mainly in religious or scholarly writing rather than daily speech. So a Bollywood actress might wear a sparkly bindi to a film premiere, while a priest in a temple paints a tilak on a worshipper's forehead.

bindi ↗tilak ↗bindu

Common collocations

Nouns

  • bindi sticker
  • bindi design

Phrases

  • wear a bindi
  • put on a bindi
  • a red bindi
  • a stick-on bindi

Prepositions

  • on the forehead
  • between the eyebrows
  • above the eyes

Etymology

SanskritHindiEnglish

Borrowed into English in the late twentieth century from Hindi 'bindī', which itself comes from the Sanskrit word 'bindu' meaning a dot or drop. The shape of the mark gives the word its name. English began using 'bindi' as travel writing and South Asian fashion entered wider circulation, and the spelling stayed close to the Hindi original.