Babylonian

[bab-uh-loh-nee-uhn, -lohn-yuhn]

adjective

1. of or relating to Babylon or Babylonia.

2. extremely luxurious.

3. wicked; sinful.

noun

1. an inhabitant of ancient Babylonia.

2. the dialect of Akkadian spoken in Babylonia.

Babylonian

/ ˌbæbɪˈləʊnɪən /

noun

1. an inhabitant of ancient Babylon or Babylonia

2. the extinct language of Babylonia, belonging to the E Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family: a dialect of Akkadian

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of ancient Babylon or Babylonia, its people, or their language

2. decadent or depraved

Other Word Forms

• post-Babylonian adjective
• pre-Babylonian adjective
• pseudo-Babylonian adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Babylonian¹

First recorded in 1555–65; Babyloni(a) + -an

Example Sentences

It is a day of mourning for the destruction by the Babylonians of Jerusalem's first Jewish Temple and of its second one by the Romans.

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The 3 centuries after 1600 B.C.E. also marked the heyday of such civilizations as the Mycenaeans in Greece, the Hittites and Babylonians in the Near East, and Egypt’s New Kingdom.

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Because capitalism threatens to destroy us all, it makes sense that a monstrous shopping center would cannibalize Babylonian ruins.

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Suddenly, Streisand was a "Babylonian queen" whose profiles were laced with superlatives - 250 million records sold, 10 Golden Globe awards, five Emmys and two Oscars, for acting and songwriting.

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The Babylonian astronomers also created formulas to predict where celestial bodies, including Mercury, would appear in the sky.

Read more on National Geographic