Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A country of northwest Africa on the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Inhabited from ancient times by Berbers, the region became a Roman province in the 1st century AD and was conquered by Arabs in the 7th century. The country was later united (11th–13th century) under Berber-Muslim dynasties. The French established a protectorate over most of the region in 1912, and in 1956 Morocco achieved independence as a kingdom. Rabat is the capital and Casablanca the largest city.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A coastal country in North-western Africa. Official name: Kingdom of Morocco.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Earlier spelling Marocco, from Spanish Marruecos or Portuguese Marrocos, from Medieval Latin Marrochium, from former capital  ("Marrakech") (whence English Marrakech). (Compare Persian and Urdu, which refer to Morocco as مراکش ("marâkeš"), and Middle Eastern Arabic, which used مراكش ("marraakush") until recently; Turkish refers to Morocco as Fas, from Fas ("Fez"), another capital.) Marrakech is in turn from Berber Murt n Akush ("Land of God").

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