moroccan

IPA/məˈrɒk.ən/
KK[mɚˈɑkən]IPA/məˈrɑː.kən/

moroccan — adjective

  • moroccanpositive
  • more moroccancomparative
  • most moroccansuperlative

1. connected with the country of Morocco, the people who live there, or the culture

1.adjectiveA2
Definition

connected with the country of Morocco, the people who live there, or the culture that comes from it

Example

Femi bought a Moroccan cookbook before planning the menu for Saturday dinner.

Moroccan + culture/food noun

The hotel lobby had Moroccan lamps and blue tiles on every wall.

Common collocations
  • Moroccan food
  • Moroccan music
  • Moroccan city
  • Moroccan family
  • Moroccan market
Synonyms
  • North African

    broader — includes Morocco and other countries in the same region

  • Maghrebi

    more formal and regional — refers to the western part of North Africa, not only Morocco

Grammar Patterns

[Moroccan] + noun

be + Moroccan

Usage Note

Always capitalize Moroccan. It commonly appears before nouns such as food, music, or city, and it can also follow be to state a person's nationality.

Common Mistakes

We ate moroccan bread at the market.
We ate Moroccan bread at the market.
Nationality words are capitalized in English.
The restaurant serves Morocco food.
The restaurant serves Moroccan food.
Use the adjective Moroccan before a noun, not the country name Morocco.

moroccan — noun

Word family

  • Morocco
    nounA1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

These words overlap, but they are not interchangeable. Moroccan is the nationality word linked directly to the country of Morocco, so it works for people, cities, food, music, and government. North African is broader and covers several countries in the region, not just Morocco. Arab often refers to language, culture, or ethnic identity across many countries, so it does not automatically mean Moroccan, and not every Moroccan would use it the same way. Maghrebi is a more formal regional label for the western part of North Africa and can include Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia rather than Morocco alone.

Moroccan ↗North AfricanArab ↗Maghrebi ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • be Moroccan
  • a Moroccan
  • two Moroccans

Prepositions

Etymology

ArabicFrenchEnglish

English built Moroccan from the country name Morocco with the ending -an, a common pattern in nationality words. The name Morocco reached English through European forms based on Arabic names connected with Marrakesh, once a major political center in the area. From there, Moroccan developed both its adjective meaning and its noun meaning for a person from Morocco.

First known use

1684

1684, in the meaning defined above