Definitions for iraq
ɪˈræk, ɪˈrɑkiraq

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Iraq, Republic of Iraq, Al-Iraq, Iraknoun

   a republic in the Middle East in western Asia; the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia was in the area now known as Iraq

WiktionaryRate this definition:4.0 / 2 votes

1. Iraqnoun

   Country in Mesopotamia that borders on Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. Official name: Republic of Iraq.

2. Etymology: Possibly from Sumerian “” or “Warka” (Biblical “Erech”) region in the south of ancient Iraq. Medieval Arabic uses ‘Iraq’ as a geographical term for the area in the south and center of the modern Iraq. Some Arabic sources say that Iraq comes from عريق, from عرق, while others say it is from Middle Persian's erāq, due to historic rule from Iraq's plateau-situated neighbor, Persia.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Iraq

   Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and Kuwait to the southeast, Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the southwest and Syria to the west. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Iraqi Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Persians and Shabakis with similarly diverse geography and wildlife. The vast majority of the country's 40 million residents are Muslims – the notable other faiths are Christianity, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Yarsanism and Zoroastrianism. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish; others also recognised in specific regions are Neo-Aramaic, Turkish and Armenian.Starting as early as the 6th millennium BC, the fertile alluvial plains between Iraq's Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, referred to as Mesopotamia, gave rise to some of the world's earliest cities, civilisations, and empires, including those of Akkad, Babylon, Assyria and Sumer. Mesopotamia was a "Cradle of Civilisation" that saw the independent development of a writing system, mathematics, timekeeping, a calendar, astrology, and a law code. Following the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia, Baghdad became the capital and the largest city of the Abbasid Caliphate, and during the Islamic Golden Age, the city evolved into a significant cultural and intellectual center, and garnered it a worldwide reputation for its academic institutions, including House of Wisdom. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258 during the siege of Baghdad, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. Modern Iraq dates back to 1920, when the British Mandate for Mesopotamia, joining three Ottoman vilayets, was created under the authority of the League of Nations. A British-backed Kingdom was established in 1921 under Faisal I of Iraq. The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from the UK in 1932. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party from 1968 until 2003. In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, sparking a protracted war which would last for almost eight years, and end in a stalemate with devastating losses for both countries. After an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party was removed from power, and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The US presence in Iraq ended in 2011.Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic. The president is the head of state, the prime minister is the head of government, and the constitution provides for two deliberative bodies, the Council of Representatives and the Council of Union. The judiciary is free and independent of the executive and the legislature.Iraq is considered an emerging middle power with a strategic location and a founding member of the United Nations, the OPEC as well as of the Arab League, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF. From 1920 to 2005 Iraq experienced spells of significant economic and military growth and briefer instability including wars. Since the inception of the current multipartite system in 2005, the country has seen further growth and steadier international investment, and a major decline in factional domestic attacks. However, recurrent failures to form a working government by members of parliament have been accompanied by politically motivated violence against government institutions.

WikidataRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. Iraq

   Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia encompassing the Mesopotamian alluvial plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the west, Saudi Arabia to the south and southwest, and Kuwait to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian-Chaldean empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

1. IRAQ

   What does IRAQ stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the IRAQ acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Asian Country
   • Middle East

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'iraq' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3128

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'iraq' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4657

Anagrams for iraq »

1. riq'a

How to pronounce iraq?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say iraq in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of iraq in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of iraq in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of iraq in a Sentence

1. Tony Abbott:

   The government's decision has the support of the prime minister of Iraq and it responds to a formal request from the United States to contribute specific Australian Defence Force capabilities to this international coalition.

2. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin:

   Economic cooperation must coincide with settling security matters, the faster you liberate this city, the sooner we can get (back) to Iraq.

3. Markus Hilgert:

   We're trying to develop methods to uncover, to discover, to clear up this dark field of crime, of organized crime, to understand the networks, to understand how people interact, to understand how much money is made, to understand how the objects come from Iraq and Syria to Germany.

4. Muhannad Haimour:

   They come to Anbar and Iraq to die. It's very difficult to stop a bulldozer that's been armored, driven by a suicide bomber, with tons of explosives, and dealing with these fighters has been extremely difficult. It's not a conventional war by any stretch of the imagination.

5. Iraq Perry:

   I can't answer why people have struggled with it, it's obvious to me that when we talk about Iraq -- and the question of the week was 'knowing what we know now, would you have ordered the invasion? -- and the answer is 'no.'.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=iraq
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Iraq
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq
4. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=iraq