Berber
Americannoun
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a member of a group of North African tribes living in Barbary and the Sahara.
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a subfamily of Afro-Asiatic, consisting of the languages of the Berbers, including Tuareg and Kabyle.
adjective
noun
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a member of a Caucasoid Muslim people of N Africa
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the language of this people, forming a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. There are extensive differences between dialects
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Berber
1835–45; < Arabic barbar < Greek bárbaros; see barbarous
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:
According to Berber, Natixis’s chief economist, commodity-producing countries with improving market fundamentals, such as Brazil and Mexico, are most likely to weather the war-related volatility well.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
“It is a cautious central bank,” said Benito Berber, chief economist for the Americas at Natixis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
“I ask myself if Islam is accepted in France,” she said in her parents’ apartment, where a bright orange Berber rug woven by her Moroccan grandmother hangs next to Koranic verses in Arabic.
From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the role played by Berber van der Woude, a former Dutch diplomat, in the release of the dissent letter.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
They were stopped at the gates by gargantuan Berber guards with scimitars and chased away.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Morocco has a substantial population of Berbers, or Amazigh as they prefer to be called - some estimates put it at nearly 40% of the country's population of more than 34 million.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2022
Towns such as Tissint draw their influences from the Berbers, who have lived in North Africa for more than 4,000 years.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2022
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tweeted that the soldiers saved 100 citizens from the blazes in two areas in the mountainous Kabylie region, home of the Berbers.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2021
Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud traveled to Kabyle, home of Berbers, to assess the situation.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2021
But it is not only the historic buildings, associated with the Romans, Goths, Berbers and Almohades, that lend the fascination of antiquity to Seville.
From The Story of Seville by Hartley, C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
