Sumerian

American  

[soo-meer-ee-uhn, -mer-] / suˈmɪər i ən, -ˈmɛr- /

adjective

1. of or relating to Sumer, its people, or their language.

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noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Sumer.

2. a language of unknown affinities that was the language of the Sumerians and had, in the late 4th and 3rd millenniums b.c., a well-developed literature that is preserved in pictographic and cuneiform writing and represents the world's oldest extant written documents.

Sumerian British  

/ suːˈmɪərɪən, -ˈmɛər- /

noun

1. a member of a people who established a civilization in Sumer during the 4th millennium _bc

2. the extinct language of this people, of no known relationship to any other language

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adjective

1. of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization

Other Word Forms

• pre-Sumerian adjective

Etymology

Origin of Sumerian

First recorded in 1870–75; Sumer + -ian

Example Sentences

Made of 15-karat gold, this helmet is believed to have been worn by an early Sumerian ruler.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

Like amateur detectives, we learn alongside them as they click around pages about Sumerian devils, Catholic saints and the origin of the nursery rhymes “London Bridge” and “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 11, 2026

The loss of tidal waters may have forced Sumerian communities to respond with large-scale irrigation and flood control systems -- innovations that defined Sumer's golden age.

From Science Daily • Oct. 27, 2025

Theories have linked it to early Brahmi scripts, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages, Sumerian, and even claimed it's just made up of political or religious symbols.

From BBC • Jan. 16, 2025

Some Sumerian syllables lacked any written signs; the same sign could be pronounced in different ways; and the same sign could variously be read as a word, a syllable, or a letter.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond