Serb

//ˈsɝb// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person of Serb descent (not necessarily from Serbia). (Compare Serbian.)

    "Dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured after they were attacked by ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, during protests over the installation of ethnically Albanian mayors."

  2. 2
    a member of a Slavic people who settled in Serbia and neighboring areas in the 6th and 7th centuries wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to the Serbs; Serbian. not-comparable

    "A prominent Kosovo Serb politician, Oliver Ivanovic, was shot dead outside his party offices Tuesday morning, halting talks between Kosovar and Serb delegates that had been set to resume that day."

Synonyms

All synonyms
serbian

Example

More examples

"We're a mixed group and I never knew who was a Serb, a Croat or a Muslim."

Etymology

From Serbo-Croatian Srbi, from Proto-Slavic *sьrbъ (“ally, Serb, Sorb”), from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to protect, watch over”); akin to Latin servo (“I guard, I protect”), Old English searu (“weapons, armor”), Lithuanian sárgas (“watchman”), Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero”), Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (haraⁱti), 𐬵𐬀𐬎𐬭𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (haᵘruuaⁱti, “to guard”). Doublet of Sorb.

Related phrases

White Serbpan-Serbserbo croatian

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.