Najaf

American

[naj-af] / ˈnædʒ æf /

Also An-Najaf

noun

a city in central Iraq: holy city of the Shiʿites; shrine contains tomb of Ali (around a.d. 600–661), founder of the Shiʿite sect.

Najaf British

/ ˈnædʒæf /

noun

a holy city in central Iraq, near the River Euphrates; burial place of the Caliph Ali and a centre of the Shiite faith. Pop: 639 000 (2005 est)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Khamenei left Mashhad in 1957 to attend seminary in the Shiite holy city of Najaf in Iraq.

From The Wall Street Journal

Born in Najaf, Iraq in 1957 to a prominent Shiite cleric who was close to the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Larijani's family has been influential within Iran's political system for decades.

From Barron's

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his henchmen aren’t about to flee to Moscow or the holy city of Najaf, Iraq.

From The Wall Street Journal

The interviews for “The Last 600 Meters,” which commemorates the Iraq War battles of Fallujah and Najaf, were conducted in 2007, “while memories were still fresh.”

From The Wall Street Journal

The biggest engagements fought by Americans since the Vietnam conflict, Fallujah and Najaf were fierce, frustrating, and part of a war that was neither warmly embraced by Americans nor understood very well by them.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023