Bedouin
Americannoun
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Bedouins,
plural
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Bedouin
plural
-
an Arab of the desert, in Asia or Africa; nomadic Arab.
-
a nomad; wanderer.
adjective
noun
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a member of any of the nomadic tribes of Arabs inhabiting the deserts of Arabia, Jordan, and Syria, as well as parts of the Sahara
-
a wanderer or rover
adjective
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of or relating to the Bedouins
-
wandering or roving
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of Bedouin
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English Bedoynes (plural), from Old French beduyn (singular), from Arabic badawīn “desert-dwellers,” plural of badawī, equivalent to badw “desert” + -ī a suffix indicating relationship or origin; in the Western languages, the Arabic plural form -īn was interpreted to be part of the basic form
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:
Before them stood 112 coffins containing bones and fragments of victims from the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families, two branches of the same Bedouin clan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
His Bedouin ancestors earned great wealth pearl diving—until foreign farmed pearls tanked the market and left the local economy in shambles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Last summer, she tried to bring aid into a southern city populated mostly by Druze after it was torn by deadly violence between Druze, Bedouin and Syrian government forces.
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2026
Furthermore, "it will displace more than 24 Palestinian Bedouin communities, all of which rely on livestock", he added, and therefore land for grazing.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
Poppy and Liyana in the front seat hadn’t even noticed the Bedouin tents perched far from the road in a crevice of shade between two dunes.
From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye
In the south, most Arabs are Bedouins, mainly Sunni Muslims who descended from nomadic clans that roamed the Negev Desert herding camels and sheep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
Government forces were supposed to quash any fighting between Bedouins and Druze, residents and Saraya’s neighbors say.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2025
Years ago, nomadic communities or Bedouins wore the traditional Arab headdress in historic Palestine, NPR reported.
From Salon ● May 1, 2024
"There are societies like Bedouins", she told the court.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2024
I see Bedouins in the Sahara and the French Foreign Legion, cowboys on the American prairie.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
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