Libyan

English

Etymology

From Libya +‎ -an. English since the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• enPR: lĭbʹē-ən, IPA^(key): /ˈlɪbi.ən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Lib‧y‧an
• Rhymes: -ɪbiən

Adjective

Libyan (not comparable)

1. Of, from, or pertaining to Libya.
   • 2020 February 13, Roland Oliphant, “'I have lost four years of my life': the desperate migrants stuck in squalid Libyan camps”, in The Telegraph‎^[1], archived from the original on 8 July 2025:

     More than 40,000 would-be migrants to Europe have been intercepted at sea since Italy began paying and equipping the Libyan coastguard to do so in 2017.

Derived terms

• Libyanness
• Libyanize
• Libyanization

Translations

Of, from, or pertaining to Libya, the Libyan people or the Libyan language

• Afrikaans: Libies
• Arabic: لِيبِيّ (lībiyy)
• Armenian: լիբիական (libiakan)
• Asturian: libiu (ast)
• Catalan: libi (ca), líbic
• Czech: libyjský (cs)
• Danish: libysk (da)
• Dutch: Libisch (nl)
• Esperanto: libia
• Finnish: libyalainen (fi)
• French: libyen (fr), libyque (fr) m or f
• Galician: libio
• German: libysch (de)
• Italian: libico (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: libysk

  Nynorsk: libysk (nn)

• Polish: libijski (pl)
• Portuguese: líbio (pt)
• Romanian: libian (ro)
• Russian: ливи́йский (ru) (livíjskij)
• Spanish: libio (es)
• Swahili: Kilibya
• Swedish: libysk (sv)

Noun

Libyan (plural Libyans)

1. A person from Libya or of Libyan descent.
   • 2005, Jeffrey Tayler, Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel:

     No one in Faya forgets that French air force raids drove the Libyans out of Faya, prompting them to abandon their tanks with less than Gaddafian revolutionary zeal and hightail it back home on foot.

   • 2012 January 26, Moni Basu, “Libyans face tough challenges in building a new nation”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Their frustration has surfaced in protests in several Libyan cities over the last few days, most notably in Benghazi, the seat of the revolution, where Libyans stormed the National Transitional Council building.

Translations

person

• Afrikaans: Libiër
• Arabic: لِيبِيّ m (lībiyy), لِيبِيَّة f (lībiyya)
• Armenian: լիբիացի (libiacʻi)
• Asturian: libiu (ast) m, libia (ast) f
• Catalan: libi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 利比亞人 / 利比亚人 (Lìbǐyà rén)

• Coptic: ⲫⲁⲓⲁⲧ (phaiat)
• Czech: Libyjec (cs) m
• Danish: libyer (da) c
• Dutch: Libiër (nl) m, Libische (nl) f
• Egyptian: (ṯmḥ)
• Finnish: libyalainen (fi)
• French: Libyen (fr) m, Libyenne (fr) f
• Galician: libio m
• German: Libyer (de) m, Libyerin (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: Λιβύς m (Libús)

• Italian: libico (it) m, libica (it) f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: libyer m

  Nynorsk: libyar (nn) m

• Polish: Libijczyk (pl) m, Libijka (pl) f
• Portuguese: líbio (pt) m
• Romanian: libian (ro) m, libiană (ro) f
• Russian: ливи́ец (ru) m (livíjec), ливи́йка (ru) f (livíjka)
• Spanish: libio (es) m
• Swahili: Mlibya (sw)
• Turkish: Libyalı (tr)
• Ukrainian: ліві́єць m (livíjecʹ), ліві́йка f (livíjka)

Proper noun

Libyan

1. The Libyan Arabic language.

References

• “Libyan”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• Lybian, bainly, bylina

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlibyɑn/, [ˈlibyɑ̝n]
• Rhymes: -ibyɑn
• Syllabification^(key): Li‧by‧an
• Hyphenation^(key): Li‧by‧an

Noun

Libyan

1. genitive singular of Libya