Persian
Americanadjective
noun
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a member of the native peoples of Iran, descended in part from the ancient Iranians.
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a citizen of ancient Persia.
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an Iranian language, the principal language of Iran and western Afghanistan, in its historical and modern forms.
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Architecture. a figure of a man used as a column.
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Persians. Persian blinds.
adjective
noun
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a native, citizen, or inhabitant of modern Iran; an Iranian
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a member of an Indo-European people of West Iranian speech who established a great empire in SW Asia in the 6th century bc
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the language of Iran or Persia in any of its ancient or modern forms, belonging to the West Iranian branch of the Indo-European family See also Avestan Old Persian Pahlavi 2 Farsi
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of Persian
First recorded in 1325–75; Persi(a) + -an; replacing Middle English Persien, from Middle French; replacing Old English Persisc ( -ish 1 )
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.
Your mom is a well-known scholar of Persian food.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 1, 2026
Go with him inside this covert maritime network to see how the trade in sanctioned Iranian oil continues thousands of miles from the Persian Gulf.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026
“Short-haul transport of methanol from Iran to the rest of the Persian Gulf; crew change in Dubai,” said one advertisement posted this month by a ship management company in the city of Xi’an recruiting seafarers.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
Meanwhile, the US Treasury on Wednesday sanctioned Iran's newly formed "Persian Gulf Strait Authority", set up by Tehran to oversee traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
From BBC • May 28, 2026
The video ended with Persian Jerry Espringer giving his final thought from a toilet seat.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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.
