qosh

Qosh is a noun in Uzbek meaning eyebrow, the strip of hair above the eye. It is used in everyday speech and in writing across Uzbek-speaking regions, including Uzbekistan and parts of neighboring countries where Uzbek communities are present. The plural form is qoshlar.

In Uzbek phonology, the initial q is a voiceless uvular stop, pronounced further back in the mouth than the English k. The word is part of a wider Turkic language family, where cognate terms for facial features and related words appear in related forms, though the exact terms differ between languages (for example, Turkish uses kaş for eyebrow).

The term qosh can also appear in toponyms or personal names within Central Asia, reflecting its role in the regional linguistic landscape. When encountered in texts, it generally retains the eyebrow sense, but readers should note that similarly spelled words in Turkic languages may have different meanings or spellings, such as qoʻsh, a related root that in Uzbek means “to add” or “to join” (a distinct word with a separate pronunciation and usage).

See also: kaş (Turkish for eyebrow) and other Turkic-language facial feature terms.