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barbary

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

The Mediterranean coastal areas of North Africa that were used as a base by pirates in the 16th to 19th centuries.

Pronunciation

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bahrberee

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbɑɹbɚi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. historical

    The Mediterranean coastal areas of North Africa that were used as a base by pirates in the 16th to 19th centuries.

  2. A region of northern Africa on the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Gibraltar; was used as a base for pirates from the 16th to 19th centuries

adjective

  1. obsolete

    Barbarian; non-Christian

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.