Lebanese

How to spell lebanese

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce lebanese

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lebanese mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to Lebanon, its people, or its culture.
2. nounA person from Lebanon, or the people of Lebanon collectively.

Lebanese in a sentence

• adjective

  The restaurant serves authentic lebanese cuisine with fresh hummus and grilled meats.

• noun

  Many lebanese live abroad and send money home to their families.

• adjective

  She traced her lebanese heritage back to a village near Beirut.

• noun

  The conference brought together lebanese from across the diaspora.

Where does lebanese come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word is built from Lebanon, the name of the Middle Eastern country, plus the suffix -ese, which English uses to form the names of nationalities and languages, as in Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese. That suffix arrived through Old French -eis and ultimately the Latin -ensis, meaning 'belonging to' or 'originating from' a place. The country name Lebanon itself goes back through Greek and Latin to a Semitic root, the Hebrew and Phoenician laban, meaning 'white', a reference to the snow that caps the famous Lebanon mountain range. The word came into wide English use during the twentieth century as the modern state took shape after the First World War. The main spelling trap is the quiet 'a' in the unstressed middle syllable (Leb-A-nese) and remembering the single 'b', not a doubled one.

How the word is built

• Leban- (from Lebanon, the country)
• -ese (suffix forming demonyms and language names)