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

Until he publicly resigned from Anthropic and warned about the dangers of AI systems that could end humanity, Jacob Coxon was anonymous, report Amrith Ramkumar, Erin Woo, Berber Jin and Ben Cohen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 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

Thought to be of Berber origin, Pope Victor I was in charge of the Catholic Church at a time when Christians were sometimes being persecuted by Roman officials for refusing to worship Roman gods.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2025

“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

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

But if you need to hunt for new shags or Berbers, you may find it’s as challenging as taking down a saber-toothed tiger.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 8, 2019

It was only by skilfully working upon the sectarian schisms, and consequent insurrections, which divided the Berbers of Africa, that the Sultan succeeded in keeping the Fātimites at a distance.

From The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole