Shehir

Shehir is a transliteration variant of the Turkish word şehir, which means city or urban area. In standard Turkish orthography, the word is written şehir, with the letters ş and i indicating the appropriate sounds. The ASCII form “shehir” may appear in non-diacritic texts or older transliterations.

Etymology and cognates: Şehir derives from the Persian word shahr (city), borrowed into Turkish. Related forms appear in several languages influenced by Persian, such as Azerbaijani şəhər, Persian shahr, Urdu shehar, and Hindi shehar, all meaning “city.”

Usage: In Turkish, şehir is a common noun for any city or urban center. It features in numerous compound terms, including başşehir (capital city), şehir merkezi (city center), şehirlerarası (intercity), şehir planlaması (urban planning), and şehirleşme (urbanization). The word is generally not used as a personal name or as the official name of a specific city; it serves primarily as a generic term for urban areas.

Notes: While “shehir” may appear in ASCII renderings, the correct Turkish spelling is şehir. The term functions as a key part of everyday vocabulary in Turkish geography, urban studies, and related discourse, and has cognates across several regional languages due to shared linguistic heritage.