Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Mongol or Mongolian; specifically, in history, one of the followers of Baber, conqueror of Hindustan in the sixteenth century.
  • noun A name for the best quality of playing-cards.
  • noun Hence— Any great personage.
  • Of or relating to the Moguls, or the Mongol empire in India: as, the Mogul language; the Mogul dynasty.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A person of the Mongolian race.
  • noun Any of the Mongolian peoples who conquered parts of India and established an empire lasting from 1526 to 1857. Also, any of their descendents.
  • noun (Railroad) A heavy locomotive for freight traffic, having three pairs of connected driving wheels and a two-wheeled truck.
  • noun A great personage; magnate; autocrat.
  • noun the sovereign of the empire founded in Hindustan by the Mongols under Baber in the sixteenth century. Hence, a very important personage; a lord; -- sometimes only mogul or Moghul.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a rich or powerful person; a magnate
  • noun a hump or bump on a skiing piste

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a very wealthy or powerful businessman
  • noun a member of the Muslim dynasty that ruled India until 1857
  • noun a bump on a ski slope

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The word mogul originally meant Mongol, or person of Mongolian descent. In this context, it refers to the Mughal Empire (mughal being Persian or Arabic for "Mongol") of Indian Subcontinent that existed between 1526 and 1857: the early Mughal emperors claimed a heritage dating back to Mongol ruler Genghis Khan . The modern meaning of the word is supposedly derived from the storied riches of the Mughal emperors, which for example produced the Taj Mahal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From dialectal German Mugel.

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