Bedouin
Americannoun
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Bedouins,
plural
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Bedouin
plural
-
an Arab of the desert, in Asia or Africa; nomadic Arab.
-
a nomad; wanderer.
adjective
noun
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a member of any of the nomadic tribes of Arabs inhabiting the deserts of Arabia, Jordan, and Syria, as well as parts of the Sahara
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a wanderer or rover
adjective
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of or relating to the Bedouins
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wandering or roving
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Bedouin
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English Bedoynes (plural), from Old French beduyn (singular), from Arabic badawīn “desert-dwellers,” plural of badawī, equivalent to badw “desert” + -ī a suffix indicating relationship or origin; in the Western languages, the Arabic plural form -īn was interpreted to be part of the basic form
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Before them stood 112 coffins containing bones and fragments of victims from the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families, two branches of the same Bedouin clan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
His Bedouin ancestors earned great wealth pearl diving—until foreign farmed pearls tanked the market and left the local economy in shambles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Last summer, she tried to bring aid into a southern city populated mostly by Druze after it was torn by deadly violence between Druze, Bedouin and Syrian government forces.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
This year, low rainfall led to slim pickings in the West Bank, including for the tree whose many nicknames include the Elder, the Bedouin Tree and Mother of Olives.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025
She wanted to be a Bedouin when she grew up.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
In the south, most Arabs are Bedouins, mainly Sunni Muslims who descended from nomadic clans that roamed the Negev Desert herding camels and sheep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
Years ago, nomadic communities or Bedouins wore the traditional Arab headdress in historic Palestine, NPR reported.
From Salon ● May 1, 2024
The reality of settler attacks was captured in a video taken by Muntassar Mhilat, a young Palestinian man from a family of Bedouins who live in the Judean desert not far from Jericho.
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2023
But many refused to leave their ancestral lands and have long accused the government of pushing Bedouins out with reforestation schemes and bans on livestock grazing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2023
I remembered a night two years ago when we were stationed with the Al-Hajaya tribe of Bedouins in the harsh desert of Jordan.
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
