barbarian
UK/bɑː(ɹ)ˈbɛə.ɹi.ən//bɑɹˈbɛəɹ.i.ən/
barbarian adjective: relating to people, countries, or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.
Adjective
barbarian (not comparable)
- Relating to people, countries, or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.
- Synonyms:
- barbaric, barbarious, barbarous, animalistic, brutal, brutish, Gothic, Gothlike, grim, heathen
Noun
barbarian (plural barbarians)
- A non-Greek or a non-Roman citizen.
- An uncivilized or uncultured person, originally compared to the hellenistic Greco-Roman civilisation; usually associated with senseless violence and self-harm or other such shows of brute force and lack of mental faculty.
- A person destitute of culture; a Philistine.
- Shall a noble writer, and an inspired noble writer, be called a solecist, and barbarian, for giving a new turn to a word so agreeable to the analogy and genius of the Greek tongue?1725, Anthony Blackwall, The Sacred Classics Defended And Illustrated
- Someone from a developing country or backward culture.
- A brutish warrior depicted in sword and sorcery and other fantasy works; typically clad in primitive furs or leather and usually favoring physical strength over intelligence while often possessing a bellicose temperament and disdain for laws.
- A cruel, savage, inhumane, brutal, violently aggressive person, particularly one who is unintelligent or dim-witted; one without pity or empathy.
- Thou fell barbarian.1712, Ambrose Philips, The Distrest Mother
- A foreigner, especially with barbaric qualities as in the above definitions.
- Synonyms:
- alien
barbarian meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
barbarian in Hindi
- uncivilized person
- बर्बर barbar
barbarian in Tamil
- காட்டுமிராண்டி, நாகரிகமில்லாதவர், பண்பற்றவர், கிரேக்க வழக்கில் அயல்நாட்டான், காட்டு மிராண்டித்தனமான, முரட்டுத் தன்மையுடைய
barbarian in Urdu
- barbarian; rapacious
- پٹھان paṭhān
barbarian in Bengali
- barbarian
- বর্বর borbor
More languagesFewer languages
- barbarian in Malayalam
- കിരാതൻ kirātaṉ
- barbarian in Kannada
- ಮ್ಲೇಚ್ಛ mlēccha
- barbarian in Punjabi
- پٹھان paṭhāṇ, ਪਠਾਣ paṭhāṇ
- barbarian in Gujarati
- ઢેઢ ḍheḍh
- barbarian in Odia
- ପଠାଣ paṭhāṇa
- barbarian in Sanskrit
- बर्बर barbara, म्लेच्छ mleccha, दस्यु dasyu
- barbarian in Arabic
- هَمَجِيّ hamajiyy, مُتَوَحِّش mutawaḥḥiš, بَرْبَرِيّ barbariyy
- barbarian in Persian
- وحشیانه vahšiyâne, وحشی vahši, بربری barbari, بربر barbar
- barbarian in Thai
- อนารยชน
- barbarian in Vietnamese
- dã man, mọi, rợ
Examples of barbarian in a sentence
- My half-orc barbarian reached fifth level before he was squashed by a troll.
- Think The Dying Earth with added barbarian badassery — this is some very superior genre-blending.
- Wessex was facing new barbarians, apparently intent on destroying everything that Christendom meant for England.
Synonyms of barbarian
18 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of barbarian
| plural | barbarians |
|---|
Origin of barbarian
From Middle English barbarian, borrowed from Medieval Latin barbarinus (“Berber, pagan, foreigner”), from Latin barbaria (“foreign country”), from barbarus (“foreigner, savage”), from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (bárbaros, “foreign, non-Greek, strange”), possibly onomatopoeic (mimicking foreign languages, akin to English blah blah). Cognate to Sanskrit बर्बर (barbara, “barbarian, non-Aryan, stammering, blockhead”).
Words formed from barbarian
Phrases with barbarian
Words that rhyme with barbarian
- Darien
- Aryan
- libertarian
- Arian
- documentarian
- humanitarian
- sabbatarian
- sectarian
- unitarian
- vegetarian
- -arian
- agrarian
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- Bulgarian
- caesarian
- catenarian
- librarian
- lunarian
- Marian
- planetarian
- Ripuarian
- Solarian
- trinitarian
- alphabetarian
- antiauthoritarian
- aquarian
- Bolivarian
- communitarian
- contrarian
- corpuscularian
- denarian
- flexitarian
- futilitarian
- infirmarian
- Kaffrarian
- necessitarian
- nonsectarian
- paraovarian
- parian
- pollotarian
- proprietarian
- quinarian
- sacramentarian
- sanitarian
- semivegetarian
- Tartarean
- Tartarian
- Tocharian
- tricenarian
- valetudinarian
- vestiarian
- acarian
- actiniarian
- actuarian
- aerarian
- alcyonarian
- altitudinarian
- antelapsarian
- antiacarian
- antiegalitarian
- antilapsarian
Questions about barbarian
- What does barbarian mean?
- Barbarian means relating to people, countries, or customs perceived as uncivilized or inferior.
- What is barbarian in Hindi?
- Barbarian in Hindi is बर्बर (barbar). See Barbarian meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is barbarian?
- Barbarian can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce barbarian?
- Barbarian is pronounced /bɑː(ɹ)ˈbɛə.ɹi.ən/ (UK).
Words near barbarian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: barbarian (page history and authors); barbarian (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پٹھان (Urdu) (page history and authors); বর্বর (Bengali) (page history and authors); കിരാതൻ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಮ್ಲೇಚ್ಛ (Kannada) (page history and authors); پٹھان (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ઢેઢ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); ପଠାଣ (Odia) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-barbarian.ogg.
Cite this entry: “barbarian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barbarian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.