Word.ws English Dictionary

Meroe

US/ˈmɛɹəweɪ/

Meroe proper noun: an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile.

Proper noun

Meroe

  1. An ancient city on the east bank of the Nile.
    • The ultimate origins of iron in east Africa, then, must remain conjectural, though a spread from Meroe up the Nile to the Lake Victoria region is the most plausable route at the moment, and Meroic furnaces and tool styles are similar to those in East Africa.1981, Thomas T. Spear, Kenya's past: an introduction to historical method in Africa, →ISBN, page 19

Forms of Meroe

alternative formMeroë

Origin of Meroe

From Ancient Greek Μερόη (Meróē), from Meroitic 𐦨𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦥𐦢 (medewi /⁠məɾəwi⁠/), 𐦦𐦡𐦷𐦡𐦥𐦢 (bedewi /⁠bəɾəwi⁠/). Possibly related to Old Nubian ⲙⲓⲇⲇ (midd, “to be ready”) (also ⲙⲉⲇⲇ (medd) or ⲙⲉⲣⲁ (mera)), hence meaning “alert”.

Questions about Meroe

What does Meroe mean?
Meroe means an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile.
What part of speech is Meroe?
Meroe is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Meroe?
Meroe is pronounced /ˈmɛɹəweɪ/ (US).

Words near Meroe in the dictionary

  1. merocytic
  2. Merodach
  3. merodiploid
  4. merodiploids
  5. merodiploidy
  6. Meroe
  7. merogamete
  8. merogametes
  9. merogamy
  10. merogenesis
  11. merogenetic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Meroe (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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Cite this entry: “Meroe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meroe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.