Arabia

[ uh-rey-bee-uh ]

/ əˈreɪ bi ə /

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noun

a peninsula in SW Asia, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen Arab Republic, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait: divided in ancient times into Arabia Deserta, Arabia Petraea, and Arabia Felix. About 1,000,000 sq. mi. (2,600,000 sq. km).

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Also called Arabian Peninsula.

Words nearby Arabia

Arab, Arab American, araban, Arabel, arabesque, Arabia, Arabia Deserta, Arabia Felix, Arabian, Arabian camel, Arabian coffee

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Arabia in a sentence

Neandertals inhabited parts of the Middle East by around 70,000 years ago and could have reached a well-watered Arabia by 55,000 years ago.
2021 research reinforced that mating across groups drove human evolution|Bruce Bower|December 13, 2021|Science News
The smuggling has its roots in the clumsiness of rulers who for hundreds of years have taken the thousand-mile Zagros range as the boundary between Arabia and Persia but ignored how Kurds live on both sides.
The World’s Most Dangerous Mountains|jversteegh|October 18, 2021|Outside Online
Some of those people may have reached Arabia before eventually journeying to southwest Asia, Groucutt suggests.
Stone Age humans or their relatives occasionally trekked through a green Arabia|Bruce Bower|September 1, 2021|Science News
Arabia, known today for its desert landscape, served as a “green turnstile” for migrating Stone Age members of the human genus starting around 400,000 years ago, a new study finds.
Stone Age humans or their relatives occasionally trekked through a green Arabia|Bruce Bower|September 1, 2021|Science News

Those finds are another sign of human migrations into Arabia at a time when the corresponding KAM 4 lake bed shows that wet conditions reigned.
Stone Age humans or their relatives occasionally trekked through a green Arabia|Bruce Bower|September 1, 2021|Science News
The most notorious states are Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where death is an acceptable legal remedy.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, primarily produces petroleum.
Fact-Checking the Sunday Shows: Jan. 4|PunditFact.com|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
On top of oil, the United States produces significantly more natural gas than Saudi Arabia.
Fact-Checking the Sunday Shows: Jan. 4|PunditFact.com|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Imagine if hackers from Saudi Arabia said that any TV station in America broadcasting feminists and gays would be attacked?
The Sony Hack and America’s Craven Capitulation To Terror|David Keyes|December 19, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Qatar is just a little spit of land that looks like a polyp on edge of Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Ally Qatar Shelters Jihadi Moneymen|Jamie Dettmer|December 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Arabia is the most dry country in the world, and one in which water is the most scarce.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume VIII (of 10)|Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
For he appears to have subdued first Ethiopia and Troglodytica,705 and afterwards to have passed over into Arabia.
The Geography of Strabo, Volume III (of 3)|Strabo
The little zebu of Arabia is not more than a tenth part the size of the bull-elephant.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume IX (of 10)|Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon
From Arabia we got the words harem and magazine, and from Turkey the name coffee, though this is really an Arabian word.
Stories That Words Tell Us|Elizabeth O'Neill
In remote antiquity the bulk of gold was brought by the Phenicians from Arabia, which had twenty-two gold mines.
The Bay State Monthly, Vol. II, No. 6, March, 1885|Various

British Dictionary definitions for Arabia

Arabia

/ (əˈreɪbɪə) /

noun

a great peninsula of SW Asia, between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf: consists chiefly of a desert plateau, with mountains rising over 3000 m (10 000 ft) in the west and scattered oases; includes the present-day countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. Area: about 2 600 000 sq km (1 000 000 sq 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

Cultural definitions for Arabia

Arabia

Peninsula in southwest Asia, bordered on the north by Jordan and Iraq, on the east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the south by the Gulf of Aden, and on the west by the Red Sea. This historical region in the Middle East consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

notes for Arabia

Strategically important because it is situated at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Arabia has been coveted and controlled by many empires throughout history. The area's importance is all the greater today because of its fabulous oil reserves. The United States and the Soviet Union both competed for influence in Arabia after the British presence ended in the late 1960s. Arabian states joined the coalition against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. (See also Persian Gulf War.)