Iraqi

PluralIraqis

1. 1
   adjective

   Belonging to, coming from, or relating to Iraq or its people.

   The Iraqi delegation arrived in Geneva for the peace talks.

   She studied Iraqi architecture during her year abroad.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Someone who is a native or citizen of Iraq, or who has Iraqi ancestry.

   The author, an Iraqi, wrote movingly about daily life in Baghdad.

   Thousands of Iraqis voted in the first round of elections.

   Note

   The ending comes straight from Arabic: ʕirāqiyy is simply Iraq plus -i, and English kept that shape whole. One form serves as both the noun and the everyday adjective, so an Iraqi and an Iraqi city sit side by side. As a noun it takes a plain English plural, Iraqis, and like other nationality words it is always capitalized.

3. 3
   adjectivehistorical

   Belonging to, coming from, or relating to Persian Iraq, a region of medieval Persia.

   The geographer described the Iraqi provinces lying east of the Zagros mountains.

   Caravans crossed the Iraqi highlands on their way to Isfahan.

   Note

   A historian's adjective, tied to a map that no longer exists. Persian Iraq was the medieval region of west-central Persia around cities such as Isfahan, as distinct from Arabic Iraq to the southwest. Most readers will hear the modern national sense first, so in current prose write Persian Iraq outright or make the period clear from the setting. Like the modern adjective, it has no comparative.

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