Semitic
a subfamily of Afroasiatic languages that includes Akkadian, Arabic, Aramaic, Ethiopic, Hebrew, and Phoenician. Abbreviations: Sem, Sem.
Origin of Semitic
1Other words from Semitic
- half-Se·mit·ic, adjective
- non-Se·mit·ic, adjective
- pre-Se·mit·ic, adjective, noun
- pseu·do-Se·mit·ic, adjective
Words Nearby Semitic
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use Semitic in a sentence
Phoenicians developed an influential writing system and spoke a common Semitic language, key markers of a common eastern Mediterranean culture, he contends.
Ancient seafarers built the Mediterranean’s largest known sacred pool | Bruce Bower | March 17, 2022 | Science NewsA few years back, designer John Galliano was fined by the government for sharing just such anti-Semitic sentiments in public.
Politicians Only Love Journalists When They're Dead | Luke O’Neil | January 8, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThe “doctorate” Duke claims is from an anti-Semitic Ukranian “diploma mill” as described by the State Department.
Parliament looks at measures to monitor toddlers for anti-Semitic speech.
Britain May Spy on Preschoolers Searching for Potential Jihadis | Nico Hines | January 7, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThough he would insist in a famous essay in Other Inquisitions that “For several reasons I am not anti-Semitic.”
Borges Had A Genius For Literature But Not Love Or Much Else | Allen Barra | October 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
Hitler was profoundly anti-Semitic, but he was also anti-Modern.
There is an air of anxious expectancy about him, with a look of Semitic shrewdness in the long, narrow face.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander BerkmanWe now understand how the Phoenicians, whose ancestors arrived in the second Semitic migration, came to call their land “Canaan.”
In any case, there they stand; a token of how thoroughly the most primitive form of Semitic religion is a living reality to-day.
The Cradle of Mankind | W.A. WigramThey spoke a non-Semitic language, and were the oldest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we have any knowledge.
Myths of Babylonia and Assyria | Donald A. MackenzieThe possibility that unidentified types may have contributed to the Semitic blend, however, remains.
Myths of Babylonia and Assyria | Donald A. Mackenzie
British Dictionary definitions for Semitic
less commonly Shemitic
/ (sɪˈmɪtɪk) /
a branch or subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family of languages that includes Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic, and such ancient languages as Akkadian and Phoenician
denoting, relating to, or belonging to this group of languages
denoting, belonging to, or characteristic of any of the peoples speaking a Semitic language, esp the Jews or the Arabs
another word for Jewish
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for Semitic
[ (suh-mit-ik) ]
A descriptive term for several peoples of the Middle East and their descendants, including Jews (see also Jews) and Arabs (see Arab-Israeli conflict). Today the term is mainly applied to Jews. (See anti-Semitism.)
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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