-stan

Suffixes

-cide

-cycle

-cracy

-ic

-ism

-ist

-ography

-oid

-ology

-omics

-onomy

-onym

-philia

-phobia

-scope

-stan

-ware

The word -stan is a suffix meaning "Home of" that is used in the names of many countries. For example, "Turkmenistan" would be "the home of the Turkmen."

Countries that end in -stan

• Afghanistan
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Pakistan
• Tajikistan
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan

Other -stans

• Balochistan
• Bantustan
• Bashkortostan (Russian region)
• Dagestan (Russian region)
• Gulistan ("Rose garden" in Persian). A palace in Tehran and a poem by Saadi
• Hindustan
• Kafiristan
• Khalistan (proposed Sikh homeland / proposed state)
• Khuzestan (a region of southwestern Iran)
• Kurdistan (Kurdish region)
• Lazistan (another name for Colchis, a region in the Caucasus)
• Lorestan (a region of western Iran)
• Nuristan
• Pashtunistan
• Rajasthan (Indian state)
• Tatarstan (Russian region)
• Turkestan
• Waziristan
• Yunanistan (The Turkish name for Greece)

An ethnocentric American sense of the ending -stan as inherently comical is expressed in many parodies, such as the film Lost in Absurdistan or Pat Buchanan's nickname for Canada: Soviet Canuckistan.