Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- An ancient region of southwest Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in modern-day Iraq. Probably settled before 5000 BC, the area was the home of numerous early civilizations, including Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, and Assyria. It declined in importance after Mongol invaders destroyed its extensive irrigation system in AD 1258.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A region in Southwest
Asia spanning from the riversEuphrates andTigris that is the site of one of the most ancient civilizations in the history of man. - proper noun The British Mandate of Mesopotamia, a
League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1932 that was the precursor to the independent state ofIraq .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the land between the Tigris and Euphrates; site of several ancient civilizations; part of what is now known as Iraq
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Mesopotamia.
Examples
-
In the strict sense, the term Mesopotamia should be limited to the territory lying between the Euphrates and the Tigris above their junction, in the neighborhood of Baghdad, and extending northwards to the confines of the Taurus range; while the district to the south of
The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Morris Jastrow 1891
-
Euphrates and Tigris as one country, that the term Mesopotamia in this broad sense may be retained, with the division suggested by George
The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Morris Jastrow 1891
-
I do want to note that the first grape cultivation and wine production are said to have started somewhere between 4000 and 6000 B.C. around the Caspian Sea and in Mesopotamia, which is present-day Iran.
-
The contrast between the gloomy war of the intelligentsia’s imagination and the real one on the ground in Mesopotamia is astonishing.
Stromata Blog: 2007
-
The contrast between the gloomy war of the intelligentsia’s imagination and the real one on the ground in Mesopotamia is astonishing.
-
Pyramids have been around for 6000 years, starting with ziggarauts in Mesopotamia and being formed in Egypt (where they are most famous) and in North and South America, where Aztec and American Indian pyramids have been found.
-
The fertile land between the Euphrates and Tigris was called Mesopotamia “the land between the rivers” by the Greeks.
Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011
-
My dream job location is in Mesopotamia, maybe as a goat herder.
-
Now, assigning combat soldiers the task of nation-building in, say, Mesopotamia is akin to hiring a crew of lumberjacks to build a house in suburbia.
Andrew Bacevich: The Long War: Year Ten Lost in the Desert with the GPS on the Fritz Andrew Bacevich 2010
-
The fertile land between the Euphrates and Tigris was called Mesopotamia “the land between the rivers” by the Greeks.
Alexander the Great Philip Freeman 2011
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.