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Achaemenid

American  
[uh-kee-muh-nid, uh-kem-uh-] / əˈki mə nɪd, əˈkɛm ə- /

noun

Achaemenids, plural Achaemenidae, plural Achaemenides plural
  1. a member of the dynasty of kings in ancient Persia that ruled from c550 b.c. to 331 b.c.


Achaemenid British  
/ əˈkɛm-, əˈkiːmənɪd /

noun

  1. any member of a Persian dynasty of kings, including Cyrus the Great, that ruled from about 550 to 331 bc , when Darius III was overthrown by Alexander the Great

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of Achaemenid

Achaemen(es) + -id 1

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:

It is not until the sixth century B.C., when Achaemenid Persians conquered Mesopotamia and much of the Eastern Mediterranean, that dimly perceptible Carthaginians come into view.

From The Wall Street Journal Feb. 11, 2026

Even so, the surviving examples appear to span the reigns of Achaemenid emperors Darius, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes, covering 550 to 425 BCE.

From Science Daily Dec. 18, 2025

It specifically referred to the heartland of the Persian Empire, particularly during the Achaemenid period and has since evoked a sense of the country's ancient grandeur and cultural achievements.

From Salon Sep. 15, 2024

By 327BC, Alexander the Great had conquered the region and married a Bactrian woman named Roxana, after defeating the Achaemenid ruler.

From BBC Feb. 21, 2024

This was the city that was burned by Alexander the Great during the Achaemenid dynasty three hundred years before Christ.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

To this royal family of the Achaemenidae Cyrus belonged.

From Beacon Lights of History, Volume 04 Imperial Antiquity by Lord, John

After the death of Cambyses, the younger line of the Achaemenidae came to the throne with Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who was, like Cyrus, the great-grandson of Teispes.

From The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia Volume 1 of 28 by Project Gutenberg

They destroyed Nineveh in alliance with the Babylonians, and half a century later Cyrus took Babylon and founded the great dynasty of the Achaemenidae.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens" by Various

Before the battle of Ipsus, Mithridates, a Persian prince of the blood-royal of the Achaemenidae, had escaped to Pontus, and founded there the kingdom of that name.

From The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo by Creasy, Edward Shepherd, Sir

History.—This country was anciently part of the Persian empire of the Achaemenidae, and probably afterwards of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, and then subject to the invading Asiatic tribes who broke up that kingdom, e.g. the Yue-chi.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 5 "Hinduism" to "Home, Earls of" by Various

The good Anchises rais'd him with his hand; Who, thus encourag'd, answer'd our demand: 'From Ithaca, my native soil, I came To Troy; and Achaemenides my name.

From The Aeneid English by Virgil

This passage Achaemenides had shown, Tracing the course which he before had run.

From The Aeneid English by Virgil

As against the Achaemenides, emulating the high Semitic culture of the West and the Hellenistic endeavours preceding the Parthian dynasty, the Sasanians pre-eminently were the promulgators of the Iranian principles.

From Iranian Influence on Moslem Literature, Part I by Nariman, G. K. (Gushtaspshah Kaikhushro)

But whatever be the source of the Phoenician, that of the Persian system current under the Achaemenides is clear enough.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court

The Achaemenids had waged war with Greece, inadvertently exciting the future ambitions of Alexander the Great.

From New York Times May 11, 2020

The rise of the Achaemenids in Persia around the time of the Buddha had produced the first truly global empire.

From New York Times May 11, 2020

It was an ancient and sophisticated civilization of its own, by the Sasanian period already nearly eight centuries old under the Achaemenids, Seleucids, and Parthians in turn.

From Textbooks Jan. 1, 2020

Subsequent dynasties would look back to the Sasanians as the model to emulate, just as the Sasanians had emulated the Achaemenids.

From Textbooks Jan. 1, 2020

The Osmanlis are passing at this moment as the Achaemenids passed then.

From Turkey: a Past and a Future by Toynbee, Arnold Joseph

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