BABYLON

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Babylon mean? 

• BABYLON (noun)
  The noun BABYLON has 1 sense:

1. the chief city of ancient Mesopotamia and capital of the ancient kingdom of Babylonia

  Familiarity information: BABYLON used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BABYLON (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The chief city of ancient Mesopotamia and capital of the ancient kingdom of Babylonia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

city; metropolis; urban center (a large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts)

Meronyms (parts of "Babylon"):

Babel; Tower of Babel ((Genesis 11:1-11) a tower built by Noah's descendants (probably in Babylon) who intended it to reach up to heaven; God foiled them by confusing their language so they could no longer understand one another)

Hanging Gardens of Babylon (a terraced garden at Babylon watered by pumps from the Euphrates; construction attributed to Nebuchadnezzar around 600 BC)

Domain region:

Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates; site of several ancient civilizations; part of what is now known as Iraq)

Domain member region:

Tashmit; Tashmitum (consort of Nabu)

Shamash (the chief sun god; drives away winter and storms and brightens the earth with greenery; drives away evil and brings justice and compassion)

Sarpanitu; Zarpanit; Zirbanit (consort of Marduk)

Ninib; Ninurta (a solar deity; firstborn of Bel and consort was Gula; god of war and the chase and agriculture; sometimes identified with biblical Nimrod)

Ningishzida (an underworld Babylonian deity; patron of medicine)

Ningirsu (Babylonian god in older pantheon: god of war and agriculture)

Nina (the Babylonian goddess of the watery deep and daughter of Ea)

Nabu; Nebo (Babylonian god of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools)

Baal Merodach; Bel-Merodach; Marduk; Merodach (the chief Babylonian god; his consort was Sarpanitu)

Kishar (Babylonian consort of Anshar; in Sumerian the name signifies 'the totality of the lower world')

Gula (the Babylonian goddess of healing and consort of Ninurta)

Girru (the Babylonian god of fire; often invoked in incantations against sorcery)

Damgalnunna; Damkina ((Babylonian) earth goddess; consort of Ea and mother of Marduk)

Bel (Babylonian god of the earth; one of the supreme triad including Anu and Ea; earlier identified with En-lil)

Ishtar; Mylitta (Babylonian and Assyrian goddess of love and fertility and war; counterpart to the Phoenician Astarte)

Anunnaki; Enuki (any of a group of powerful Babylonian earth spirits or genii; servitors of the gods)

Anu (Babylonian god of the sky; one of the supreme triad including Bel and Ea)

Antum (Babylonian consort of Anu)

Anshar (the Babylonian father of the gods; identified with Assyrian Ashur; in Sumerian the name signifies 'the totality of the upper world')

Adapa (a Babylonian demigod or first man (sometimes identified with Adam))

Adad (Babylonian god of storms and wind)

Babylonia; Chaldaea; Chaldea (an ancient kingdom in southern Mesopotamia; Babylonia conquered Israel in the 6th century BC and exiled the Jews to Babylon (where Daniel became a counselor to the king))

Babylonian (the ideographic and syllabic writing system in which the ancient Babylonian language was written)

Holonyms ("Babylon" is a part of...):

Mesopotamia (the land between the Tigris and Euphrates; site of several ancient civilizations; part of what is now known as Iraq)

Derivation:

Babylonian (of or relating to the city of Babylon or its people or culture)

 Context examples 

If the name eps Eri sounds familiar, you may have already heard of it as the setting for the science fiction television series Babylon 5.

(New Observation of Nearby Star System Confirms Similarity to Ours, VOA)

It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jews in Babylon or the Israelites in Egypt.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In bidding adieu to the modern Babylon, where we have undergone many vicissitudes, I trust not ignobly, Mrs. Micawber and myself cannot disguise from our minds that we part, it may be for years and it may be for ever, with an individual linked by strong associations to the altar of our domestic life.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Under the impression, said Mr. Micawber, that your peregrinations in this metropolis have not as yet been extensive, and that you might have some difficulty in penetrating the arcana of the Modern Babylon in the direction of the City Road,—in short, said Mr. Micawber, in another burst of confidence, that you might lose yourself—I shall be happy to call this evening, and install you in the knowledge of the nearest way.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)