Euphrates

American  

[yoo-frey-teez] / yuˈfreɪ tiz /

noun

1. a river in SW Asia, flowing from E Turkey through Syria and Iraq, joining the Tigris to form the Shatt-al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. 1,700 miles (2,735 km) long.

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Euphrates British  

/ juːˈfreɪtiːz /

noun

1. a river in SW Asia, rising in E Turkey and flowing south across Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris, forming the Shatt-al-Arab, which flows to the head of the Persian Gulf: important in ancient times for the extensive irrigation of its valley (in Mesopotamia). Length: 3598 km (2235 miles)

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Other Word Forms

• Euphratean
  adjective
• trans-Euphrates
  adjective

Example Sentences

The major air corridor over the Euphrates Valley in Iraq was empty.

From Barron's • Mar. 2, 2026

Syrian forces took from the SDF a military base, oil facilities and a dam on the Euphrates River, weakening the Kurdish group’s negotiating hand over the future of its thousands of fighters.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

The US-backed SDF then announced its pullout east of the Euphrates river.

From BBC • Jan. 18, 2026

In a statement carried by state television, the army said its forces "began entering the western Euphrates area, starting with the town of Deir Hafer", after Kurdish forces had agreed to withdraw on Saturday morning.

From Barron's • Jan. 17, 2026

In their settlements of the Tigris and Euphrates valley, they also invented the city-state, formal religion, writing, mathematics, law, and, to a large extent, architecture.

From "The Annotated Mona Lisa" by Carol Strickland and John Boswell