# Iran

Pronunciation: say "i-RAHN" US /ɪˈɹɑn/, UK /ɪˈɹɑːn/

## Proper noun

1. A country in West Asia, in the Middle East, officially called the Islamic Republic of Iran, with Tehran as its capital.
   - Simple: A country in West Asia, in the Middle East. Its capital is Tehran.
   - _Iran exports large quantities of oil and natural gas to many countries._
   - _Visitors to Iran often explore the ancient ruins of Persepolis._
2. The regions historically inhabited by the Iranian peoples, taken together as a single cultural area. *(literary)*
   - Simple: The wider lands where the Iranian peoples have long lived.
   - _The cultural sphere of Iran once reached from the Caucasus to Central Asia._
   - _For the historian, Iran meant every land where Persian culture took root, far beyond one country's borders._

## Origin

Middle Persian ʾērān meant "of the Aryans." It became Classical Persian ērān and then Iranian Persian ایران (irân). Using it as the name of the country is a 3rd-century development, taken from the native name of the Iranian peoples, that is, the many tribes who spoke an Iranian language.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/iran (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).