Ionian

American  

[ahy-oh-nee-uhn] / aɪˈoʊ ni ən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Ionia.

2. of or relating to the branch of the Greek people named from Ion, their legendary founder.

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noun

1. a member of one of the four main divisions of the prehistoric Greeks who invaded the Greek mainland and, after the Dorian invasions, emigrated to the Aegean islands and the coast of Asia Minor.

2. an Ionian Greek.

ionian British  

/ aɪˈəʊnɪən /

noun

1. a member of a Hellenic people who settled in Attica in about 1100 _bc and later colonized the islands and E coast of the Aegean Sea

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adjective

1. of or relating to this people or their dialect of Ancient Greek; Ionic

2. of or relating to Ionia

3. music relating to or denoting an authentic mode represented by the ascending natural diatonic scale from C to C and forming the basis of the modern major key See also Hypo-

Etymology

Origin of Ionian

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

Example Sentences

Last week it was conducting naval exercises with Italy in the Ionian Sea.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 8, 2023

"It was not very deep - but it was very early in the season and it was stagnant and stayed over the south Ionian Sea for four, five days."

From BBC • Sep. 19, 2023

The storm began over the Ionian Sea and damaged a few other countries on its way to Libya, including Bulgaria and Turkey.

From Salon • Sep. 15, 2023

Local and foreign tourists watched an army helicopter collect water from the Ionian Sea to pour on the blaze, although most were continuing their vacations unhindered.

From Reuters • Aug. 19, 2023

This hint, this whiff, of the existence of atoms was carried much further by a man named Democritus, who came from the Ionian colony of Abdera in northern Greece.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan