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Cathay is the Anglicized version of "Catai" and an alternative name for China in English. "Catai" was originally the name given to northern China by Marco Polo (he referred to southern China as Manji). "Catai" itself derives from the word Khitan (契丹 Qìdān), the Chinese name of a tribe ruling predominantly in northern China during Polo's visits. Travels in the Land of Kubilai Khan by Marco Polo has a story called: 'The Road to Cathay.' In the English language, the word Cathay was sometimes used for China, although increasingly only in a poetic sense, until the 19th century when it was completely replaced by "China". However the terms "China" and "Cathay" are about as old as each other in English. The term may still be used poetically or in certain proper nouns, such as Cathay Pacific Airways or Cathay Hotel. A person from Cathay (i.e., a Chinese) was also written in English as a Cathayan.

Below is the etymological progression from Khitan to Cathay as the word travelled westward:

• Uyghur (Western China): Hyty (جۇڭگو)
• Mongolian/Classical Mongolian: Hyatad (Хятад) / Kitad
• Kazan Tatar (Central Russia): Qıtay
• Russian: Kitay (Китай)
• Medieval Latin: Cataya, Kitai
• Spanish: Catay
• Italian: Catai
• Portuguese: Cataio
• English: Cathay

• Ezra Pound published a collection of poems entitled Cathay: For the Most Part from the Chinese of Rihaku, from the notes of the late Ernest Fenollosa, and the Decipherings of the Professors Mori and Ariga, London: Elkin Mathews, 1915
• Edna St. Vincent Millay mentions Cathay in her poem "To The Not Impossible Him".

In computer games:

• There are regions named Cathay in the settings of the 7th Sea and Earthdawn roleplaying games.
• Robert E Howard named a China-like civilization Khitai in his Hyborian Age backdrop for Conan the Barbarian.
• Cathay is a region with Chinese inspirations in the Warhammer Fantasy setting.

• Mongolia in world languages
• Cathay, North Dakota
• Cathay Pacific
• Cathay Pacific Trophy
• Kitai-gorod

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