Akkadian

American  

[uh-key-dee-uhn, uh-kah-] / əˈkeɪ di ən, əˈkɑ- /

Or Accadian

noun

1. the eastern Semitic language, now extinct, of Assyria and Babylonia, written with a cuneiform script.

2. one of the Akkadian people.

3. Obsolete. Sumerian.

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adjective

1. of or belonging to Akkad.

2. of or relating to the eastern Semitic language called Akkadian.

3. Obsolete. Sumerian.

Akkadian British  

/ əˈkædɪən, əˈkeɪ- /

noun

1. a member of an ancient Semitic people who lived in central Mesopotamia in the third millennium _bc

2. the extinct language of this people, belonging to the E Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family

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adjective

1. of or relating to this people or their language

Etymology

Origin of Akkadian

First recorded in 1850–55; Akkad + -ian

Example Sentences

The alabaster vase bears inscriptions in four ancient languages: Akkadian, Elamite, Persian, and Egyptian.

From Science Daily • Dec. 18, 2025

It now receives hundreds of queries per week, and similar efforts are being applied to languages from Korean to Akkadian, which was used in ancient Mesopotamia.

From Scientific American • Oct. 17, 2023

Among these languages are Sumerian and Akkadian, both dating back at least 4,600 years.

From Scientific American • Aug. 24, 2023

At some point, its people had adapted Sumerian cuneiform to their own language, which, like Akkadian, belonged to the Semitic family of languages, and archaeologists have discovered thousands of cuneiform tablets at the site.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

The phonetic writing is, therefore, a warning against any endeavor to read the name by an Akkadian transliteration of the signs.

From An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic by Jastrow, Morris