Berber
Americannoun
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Berbers
plural
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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
Berber is originally from Scarsdale, N.Y., and graduated from Stanford University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
“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
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
Ms. Elkayam said she wept the first time she heard the aching, mesmerizing voices of those long-ago Amazighs — often called Berbers, a term some consider derogatory.
From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2021
Tārik, indeed, although he had been reinforced with 5,000 Berbers, commanded still but a little army of 12,000 troops, and Roderick had six times as many men to his back.
From The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole
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.
