Phoenician
Americannoun
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Phoenicians
plural
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a native or inhabitant of Phoenicia.
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the extinct Semitic language of the Phoenicians.
adjective
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of or relating to Phoenicia, its people, or their language.
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noting or pertaining to the script used for the writing of Phoenician from the 11th century b.c. or earlier and from which were derived the Greek, Roman, and all other Western alphabets.
noun
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a member of an ancient Semitic people of NW Syria who dominated the trade of the ancient world in the first millennium bc and founded colonies throughout the Mediterranean
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the extinct language of this people, belonging to the Canaanitic branch of the Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Phoenician
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at Phoenicia, -an
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:
David Sassine, Aliph’s project manager in Beirut, was recently dispatched to Tyre, the archaeological site in southern Lebanon that’s famous for its history as a Phoenician maritime hub and for its production of purple dye.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
In antiquity, the city of Tyre was at various times Phoenician, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine.
From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 2026
The Al-Bass site is centred on a necropolis that dates back three millennia to Tyre's time as a major Phoenician city and was still in use until the Arab conquests of the 7h Century.
From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 2026
May’s “The Phoenician Scheme” marked their seventh collaboration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2025
Géry Pieret thought the statues were Phoenician, made by the sea people of ancient Greece.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
In antiquity, the Phoenicians brought techniques for making a light-bodied wine to Marseilles.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024
Cline suggests there are lessons in the resilience of the Phoenicians about having decentralized and redundant systems and being innovative and self-sufficient—qualities that could help societies endure systemic shocks today.
From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2024
Scholars believe the area was first settled by the Phoenicians and emerged as a key Roman empire outpost from the second to fifth century.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
The experience of Jack and his fellow Phoenicians is increasingly common.
From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
Nineteenth- century writers attributed the mound complexes to, among others, the Chinese, the Welsh, the Phoenicians, the lost nation of Atlantis, and various biblical personages.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
