Shere Khan is a fictional tiger who appears in two of
Rudyard Kipling's
Jungle Book stories featuring
Mowgli and their adaptations. The word
Shere (or "
shir") translates as "tiger" or "lion" in
Persian,
Urdu, and
Punjabi, and
Khan translates as "sovereign," "king", or "military leader", in a number of languages influenced by the Mongols, including
Pashto.