ghazal

Persian غزل‎ (ğazal), from Arabic غَزَلَ‎ (ḡazala, “to display love to the loved one via speech, to exchange talk of love with the loved one”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡæzæl/

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ghazal (plural ghazals)

1. A poetic form mostly used for love poetry in Middle Eastern, South, and Central Asian poetry.
   • 2001, Orhan Pamuk, Erdağ M. Göknar, transl., My Name Is Red:

     Indeed, this is a realm where colors harmoniously recite magnificent ghazals to each other, where time stops, where the Devil never appears.

   • 2005, Salman Rushdie, Shalimar the Clown, Vintage, published 2006, page 100:

     A poet could explain him to himself but he was a soldier and had no place to go for ghazals or odes.

• haglaz