Mesopotamia
- an ancient region in W Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers: now part of Iraq.
Examples from the Web for mesopotamia
Contemporary Examples
It started in the south, Chan says, then spread to Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Iran, as well as to the Greco-Roman world.
U.S. advisers there repeated the familiar mantra I heard many times during my tour in Mesopotamia… “Iraqi good enough.”
Both built themselves new capitals, the Persian in Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia; the Romans in Constantinople.
Christians were residing in Mesopotamia more than 500 years before Muslims arrived in the region.
Fundamentalist Sunni Islam was gaining ground fast in Mesopotamia in the 1990s as Baathism collapsed as an ideology.
Historical Examples
In most parts of Mesopotamia it was understood as readily as the native tongue.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
It is the old land of mystery and wonder which the Greeks called Mesopotamia.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
Mesopotamia, therefore, meant a stretch of land "between the rivers."
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
It is true, Mesopotamia was much smaller than our own country.
Ancient ManHendrik Willem van Loon
The flames of war were sweeping across Mesopotamia and Arabia.
Mesopotamia
- a region of SW Asia between the lower and middle reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers: site of several ancient civilizations
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
ancient name for the land that lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (in modern Iraq), from Greek mesopotamia (khora), literally "a country between two rivers," from fem. of mesopotamos, from mesos "middle" (see medial (adj.)) + potamos "river" (see potamo-).
In 19c. the word sometimes was used in the sense of "anything which gives irrational or inexplicable comfort to the hearer," based on the story of the old woman who told her pastor that she "found great support in that comfortable word Mesopotamia" ["Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable," 1870]. The place was called Mespot (1917) by British soldiers serving there in World War I. Related: Mesopotamian.
Mesopotamia
A region of western Asia, in what is now Iraq, known as the “cradle of civilization.” Western writing first developed there, done with sticks on clay tablets. Agricultural organization on a large scale also began in Mesopotamia, along with work in bronze and iron (see Bronze Age and Iron Age). Governmental systems in the region were especially advanced (see Babylon (see also Babylon) and Hammurabi). A number of peoples lived in Mesopotamia, including the Sumerians, Akkadians, Hittites, and Assyrians.