Berber

American  

[bur-ber] / ˈbɜr bər /

noun

• Berbers
  plural

1. a member of a group of North African tribes living in Barbary and the Sahara.

2. a subfamily of Afro-Asiatic, consisting of the languages of the Berbers, including Tuareg and Kabyle.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Berbers or their language.

Berber British  

/ ˈbɜːbə /

noun

1. a member of a Caucasoid Muslim people of N Africa

2. the language of this people, forming a subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. There are extensive differences between dialects

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adjective

1. of or relating to this people or their language

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Berbers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Berber

1835–45; < Arabic barbar < Greek bárbaros; see barbarous

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Berber Berbers

And then there is my colleague Berber Jin’s report that OpenAI has missed its own revenue targets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

According to Berber, Natixis’s chief economist, commodity-producing countries with improving market fundamentals, such as Brazil and Mexico, are most likely to weather the war-related volatility well.

From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026

“I ask myself if Islam is accepted in France,” she said in her parents’ apartment, where a bright orange Berber rug woven by her Moroccan grandmother hangs next to Koranic verses in Arabic.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the role played by Berber van der Woude, a former Dutch diplomat, in the release of the dissent letter.

From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2024

They were stopped at the gates by gargantuan Berber guards with scimitars and chased away.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

Morocco has a substantial population of Berbers, or Amazigh as they prefer to be called - some estimates put it at nearly 40% of the country's population of more than 34 million.

From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2022

Towns such as Tissint draw their influences from the Berbers, who have lived in North Africa for more than 4,000 years.

From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2022

Interior Minister Kamel Beldjoud traveled to Kabyle, home of Berbers, to assess the situation.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2021

Thus, faced with the choice of forcible conversion or death, the Berbers converted and then promptly joined the Arab armies as auxiliaries.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

The inhabitants are a mixed people, derived from the surrounding Teda and Bornu on the south, Tuareg of the plateaus on the west, Berbers and Arabs from the north.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere" by Various