Euphrates

American

[yoo-frey-teez] / juˈfreɪ tiz /

noun

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.

Euphrates British

/ juːˈfreɪtiːz /

noun

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)

"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

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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.

Farmer Issa al-Moussa walks among his damaged wheat crop in eastern Syria after the nearby Euphrates River flooded in recent days due to heavy rainfall and increased flows from Turkey.

From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026

Syria said last week it had to open the Euphrates Dam floodgates for the first time in decades.

From Barron's • Jun. 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

They entered the town of Tabqa on the south-western bank of the Euphrates and nearby dam on Saturday.

From BBC • Jan. 18, 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

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023