Standard Lemma guide

Serb

adj · noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /sɝb/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Received-Pronunciation: /sɜːb/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /səːb/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Scotland: /sɛɾb/
  • rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)b
  • CMU ARPABET: S ER1 B Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of or pertaining to the Serbs; Serbian.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

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

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a member of a Slavic people who settled in Serbia and neighboring areas in the 6th and 7th centuries

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Serbian

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: Slav

History

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 (“to guard, to protect”), Old English searu (“weapons, armor”), Lithuanian sárgas (“watchman”), Ancient Greek ἥρως (hḗrōs, “hero”), Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (haraiti), 𐬵𐬀𐬎𐬭𐬎𐬎𐬀𐬌𐬙𐬌 (hauruuaiti, “to guard”). Doublet of Sorb.

Across languages

Translations

105 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: Serwiër — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Albanian: serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Albanian: serbe — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Arabic: صِرْبِيّ (ṣirbiyy) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Arabic: صِرْبِيَّة (ṣirbiyya) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Armenian: սերբ (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Middle Armenian: սերֆ (serf) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Asturian: serbiu — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Asturian: serbia — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Azerbaijani: serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Belarusian: серб (sjerb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Belarusian: се́рбка (sjérbka) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Belarusian: сэрб (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Belarusian: сэ́рбка (sérbka) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Bengali: সার্ব (śarbo) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Bulgarian: съ́рбин (sǎ́rbin) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Bulgarian: сръбки́ня (srǎbkínja) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Bulgarian: сръ́бче (srǎ́bče) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Bulgarian: съ́рбинче (sǎ́rbinče) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Bulgarian: сръбки́нче (srǎbkínče) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Catalan: serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Catalan: serba — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Chinese Mandarin: 塞爾維亞人 /塞尔维亚人 (sāi'ěrwéiyàrén) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Chinese Mandarin: 塞族 (Sàizú) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Czech: Srb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Czech: Srbka — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Danish: serber — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Dutch: Serviër — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Dutch: Servische — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Esperanto: serbo — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Esperanto: serbino — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Estonian: serblane — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Faroese: serbi — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Finnish: serbi — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • French: Serbe — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Galician: serbio — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Georgian: სერბი (serbi) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • German: Serbe — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • German: Serbin — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Greek: Σέρβος (Sérvos) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Hebrew: סרבי (servi) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Hebrew: סרבית (servít) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Hindi: सर्ब (sarb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Hungarian: szerb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Icelandic: Serbi — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Interlingua: serbo — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Irish: Seirbiach — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Italian: serbo — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Japanese: セルビア人 (serubiajin) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Kazakh: серб (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Korean: 세르비아인 (sereubiain) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Korean: 세르비아 사람 (sereubia saram) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Central Kurdish: سربی (sirbî) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Northern Kurdish: sirbî — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Kyrgyz: серб (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Latvian: serbs — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Latvian: serbiete — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Lithuanian: serbas — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Lithuanian: serbė — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Macedonian: Србин (Srbin) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Macedonian: Србинка (Srbinka) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Manx: Serbagh — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Mongolian: серб (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Mongolian: ᠰᠡᠷᠪᠢ (serbi) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Norwegian Bokmål: serber — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Pashto: صرب (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Persian: صرب (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Polish: Serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Polish: Serbka — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Portuguese: sérvio — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Portuguese: sérvia — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Romanian: sârb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Romanian: sârbă — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Romanian: sârboaică — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Russian: серб (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Russian: се́рбка (sérbka) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Serbo-Croatian: Ср̏бин — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Serbo-Croatian: Ср̏пкиња — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Serbo-Croatian: Sȑbin — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Serbo-Croatian: Sȑpkinja — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Sicilian: serbu — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Sicilian: serba — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Slovak: Srb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Slovak: Srbka — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Slovene: Sŕb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Slovene: Sŕbkinja — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Lower Sorbian: Serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Lower Sorbian: Serbowka — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Spanish: serbio — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Spanish: serbia — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Spanish: servio — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Swedish: serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Swedish: serbiska — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Tagalog: Serbyo — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Tagalog: Serbo-Croatian — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Turkish: Sırp — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Turkish: Sırbistanlı — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Ottoman Turkish: صرپ (sırp) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Turkmen: serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Ukrainian: се́рбин (sérbyn) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Ukrainian: серб (serb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Ukrainian: се́рбка (sérbka) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Uyghur: سېرب (sërb) — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Vietnamese: người Xéc-bi — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian
  • Vilamovian: Serb — person of Serb descent — see also Serbian