Iranian

PluralIranians

1. 1
   adjective

   Belonging to, coming from, or connected with the country of Iran.

   The Iranian delegation arrived in Geneva for the talks.

   She studied Iranian art at the museum.

   SimilarPersian

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person from Iran or one whose ancestry traces back to Iran.

   As an Iranian, she grew up speaking Persian at home.

   Several Iranians were among the award winners.

   SimilarPersian

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to the Iranian language family (which includes Persian, Kurdish, and Pashto) or to its speakers.

   Kurdish belongs to the Iranian group, alongside Persian and Balochi.

   Linguists trace many Iranian languages back to Old Persian and Avestan.

   SimilarIranic

   Note

   A linguist's label for a branch of the family tree: the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian, within Indo-European, which includes Persian, Kurdish, Pashto and Ossetic. The term classifies languages, not nationalities, so keep it distinct from the national adjective. Where that ambiguity matters, Iranic does the same work without pointing to the country. Like most classifying adjectives, it has no comparative: a language is Iranian or it is not.

4. 4
   proper nounnonstandard

   The Persian language, spoken across Iran as its main tongue.

   He grew up speaking Iranian at home before learning English.

   The poem was originally composed in Iranian centuries ago.

   SimilarPersian, Farsi

   Note

   Careful writers call this language Persian, or Farsi. Using Iranian as its name is nonstandard. The trouble is that Iranian already names the whole language family, so calling one member by the family's name invites misreading: "an Iranian text" could mean Persian or any of its relatives. When you mean the language of Iran specifically, Persian says it without ambiguity.

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