sehir

Sehir, written with the Turkish letter ş as şehir, is the Turkish word for city. It refers to a large, organized urban settlement that functions as a center of governance, economy, and culture. In Turkish, şehir appears in everyday speech and in official terms such as şehir merkezi (city center), şehir planlaması (urban planning), and şehir belediyesi (city municipality). The standard spelling uses the diacritic characters; the non-diacritic form sehir is sometimes seen in international texts but does not reflect proper Turkish orthography.

Etymology and cognates: The word şehir derives from Persian shahr (city), transmitted to Turkish through Ottoman usage and ultimately from Middle Persian. Related forms exist in other Turkic languages, for example Azerbaijani şəhər. The root is also related to the Arabic shahr in concept, and similar terms appear across the broader region to denote urban centers.

Usage in Turkish administration and discourse: In modern Turkey, administrative units are il (province) and ilçe (district). A large urban center may have its own municipality and is commonly referred to as a şehir, though formal status depends on administrative law. Metropolitan areas are governed by Büyükşehir Belediyeleri (metropolitan municipalities) and encompass multiple districts. The term şehir remains a generic reference to urban life and is widely used in statistics, media, literature, and everyday language.

See also: city, urbanization, municipality.