Ali Baba

[ ah-lee bah-bah, al-ee bab-uh ]

noun
  1. the poor woodcutter, hero of a tale in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, who uses the magic words “Open sesame” to open the door to the cave in which the Forty Thieves had hidden their treasure.

Words Nearby Ali Baba

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Ali Baba in a sentence

  • Ali Baba and his son, shocked at this action, cried out aloud.

  • Ali Baba did so, and seeing a man, started back in alarm, and cried out.

  • Then each of them took his saddle wallet, which seemed to Ali Baba to be full of gold and silver from its weight.

  • Ali Baba received Khaujeh Houssain with a smiling countenance, and in the most obliging manner.

  • But a slave having opened the door, Ali Baba's son took him obligingly by the hand, and in a manner forced him in.

British Dictionary definitions for Ali Baba

Ali Baba

/ (ˈælɪ ˈbɑːbə) /


noun
  1. (in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments) a poor woodcutter who discovers that the magic words "open sesame" will open the doors of the cave containing the treasure of the Forty Thieves

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Ali Baba

Ali Baba

[ (ah-lee bah-buh, al-ee bab-uh) ]


The title character in “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” a story from the Arabian Nights. Ali Baba gains the treasure of the thieves, which they keep in a cave with a magical entrance.

Notes for Ali Baba

Ali Baba opens the door of the thieves' cave with the magical password “Open, sesame.”

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.