Babylonian

American  

[bab-uh-loh-nee-uhn, -lohn-yuhn] / ˌbæb əˈloʊ ni ən, -ˈloʊn yən /

adjective

1. of or relating to Babylon or Babylonia.

2. extremely luxurious.

3. wicked; sinful.

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noun

1. an inhabitant of ancient Babylonia.

2. the dialect of Akkadian spoken in Babylonia.

Babylonian British  

/ ˌbæbɪˈləʊnɪən /

noun

1. an inhabitant of ancient Babylon or Babylonia

2. the extinct language of Babylonia, belonging to the E Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family: a dialect of Akkadian

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of ancient Babylon or Babylonia, its people, or their language

2. decadent or depraved

Other Word Forms

• post-Babylonian adjective
• pre-Babylonian adjective
• pseudo-Babylonian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Babylonian

First recorded in 1555–65; Babyloni(a) + -an

Example Sentences

Through the Electronic Babylonian Library Platform, Jiménez and his team are digitally archiving all known cuneiform fragments from around the world.

From Science Daily • Nov. 11, 2025

She likely originated in the Babylonian kharimati, singing priestesses of bull-riding goddess Ishtar.

From Salon • Dec. 18, 2023

Suddenly, Streisand was a "Babylonian queen" whose profiles were laced with superlatives - 250 million records sold, 10 Golden Globe awards, five Emmys and two Oscars, for acting and songwriting.

From BBC • Nov. 5, 2023

Mercury retrograde was probably first documented by Babylonian astronomers around the 7th century B.C., says Mathieu Ossendrijver, a historian of ancient science, Assyriologist and astrophysicist at the Freie Universität Berlin.

From National Geographic • Aug. 24, 2023

A slighdy younger Old Babylonian clay tablet, dating from 2000-1700 bc, gives basic details on how to learn and time a four-stringed fretted lute, including instructions for the notes to play.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall