Phoenician
Americannoun
-
Phoenicians
plural
-
a native or inhabitant of Phoenicia.
-
the extinct Semitic language of the Phoenicians.
adjective
-
of or relating to Phoenicia, its people, or their language.
-
noting or pertaining to the script used for the writing of Phoenician from the 11th century b.c. or earlier and from which were derived the Greek, Roman, and all other Western alphabets.
noun
-
a member of an ancient Semitic people of NW Syria who dominated the trade of the ancient world in the first millennium bc and founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean
-
the extinct language of this people, belonging to the Canaanitic branch of the Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Phoenician
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at Phoenicia, -an
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:
The ruins of rooms from Phoenician, Persian and Roman periods have been uncovered, their pink or grey flooring helping to distinguish them.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
The painting portrays a moment in an ancient Cretan myth recounted in Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”: Zeus descends to Earth, transforms himself into a white bull and lolls among the herds belonging to the Phoenician king.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
In antiquity, the city of Tyre was at various times Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine.
From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 2026
Between Del Toro’s two rampaging performances here and in this year’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” I’m convinced there’s nothing nicer than gliding in his wake as he barges through the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2025
The water breached and dodged the Phoenician stones surrounding the island without any difficulty at all.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
In antiquity, the Phoenicians brought techniques for making a light-bodied wine to Marseilles.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024
Cline suggests there are lessons in the resilience of the Phoenicians about having decentralized and redundant systems and being innovative and self-sufficient—qualities that could help societies endure systemic shocks today.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2024
The common name of the dyestuff, Tyrian purple, derives from the habitat of the mollusks, which the Phoenicians purportedly began harvesting in the 16th century B.C. in the city-state of Tyre in present-day Lebanon.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
The fishing industry employees 2,000 people in Tyre, a centre of ancient civilisation from where the Phoenicians sailed all over the Mediterranean.
From Reuters ● Oct. 29, 2023
Nineteenth- century writers attributed the mound complexes to, among others, the Chinese, the Welsh, the Phoenicians, the lost nation of Atlantis, and various biblical personages.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
