Sarajevo

American  

[sar-uh-yey-voh, sah-rah-ye-vaw] / ˌsær əˈjeɪ voʊ, ˈsɑ rɑ jɛ vɔ /

noun

1. a city in and the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the central part: assassination of the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand here June 28, 1914, was the final event that precipitated World War I.

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Sarajevo British  

/ ˈsarajɛvɔ /

noun

1. the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina: developed as a Turkish town in the 15th century; capital of the Turkish and Austro-Hungarian administrations in 1850 and 1878 respectively; scene of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, precipitating World War I; besieged by Bosnian Serbs (1992–95). Pop: 603 000 (2005 est)

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Sarajevo ¹ Cultural  

1. Capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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Sarajevo ² Cultural  

1. The city in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the assassination that brought on World War I took place. Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of the Austrian Empire, had come to Sarajevo on a state visit; Sarajevo was then in one of the South Slavic provinces of the Austrian Empire. A young student who favored South Slavic independence shot and killed the archduke. Austria held the assassin's home country, Serbia, responsible for the incident and declared war; complex European alliances then brought other countries into the fight.

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Attacked and severely damaged in 1992 by Serbian militia. In 1995, leaders of the rival Balkan states of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia met in the United States and settled on a peace accord to end the fighting.

The Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated there in 1914, which was the immediate cause of World War I. (See under “World History since 1550.”)

Home of the 1982 winter Olympic Games.

In 1992 the city came under prolonged and bloody siege by Bosnian Serbs seeking to drive Bosnian Muslims from their homes. In 1995 leaders of the rival Balkan states of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia met in the United States and settled on a peace accord to end the fighting.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Sarajevo

As a medical student, Hamawy had gone to Bosnia, flying into Sarajevo on a white U.N. plane while the city was under siege.

From Slate ● Jul. 14, 2026

“It’s only rivaled by the ‘84 Sarajevo team.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026

Damir Dzumhur, a fixture in the men's top 100 over the past decade, was born in Sarajevo while missiles rained down on the Bosnia-Herzegovina capital in 1992 as the former Yugoslavia dissolved.

From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2026

Environmental expert at the Sarajevo Meteorological Institute Enis Krecinic said the air quality was "extremely polluted".

From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026

Zlata and I seem to have a lot in common because while Zlata was living though a war in Sarajevo, I was living through a different kind of war—the L.A. riots.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers