Saudi ArabiaSau·di Arabia (sou?d?, sô?d?, sä-o?o?d?) A country occupying most of the Arabian Peninsula. Inhabited since ancient times by nomadic Semitic tribes, the region was consolidated under Muhammad, who established a theocratic state at Medina and gained control of all Arabia c. 630. After the caliphate was moved from Medina to Damascus in 661, the peninsula remained fragmented until most of it was united in the 1700s under the Saud family, who adopted the Wahhabi form of Islam. Crushed by Egyptian and Ottoman opposition in the 1800s, Saudi forces reconquered the peninsula in the early 1900s. The unified kingdom of Saudi Arabia was created in 1932 as an absolute monarchy under Wahhabi law. Oil was discovered in 1938 and soon became the mainstay of the economy. Riyadh is the capital and the largest city.Sau?di, Sau?di A·ra?bi·an adj. & n.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.Saudi (?s??d?; ?sa?-) or Saudi Arabianadj1. (Placename) of or relating to Saudi Arabia or its inhabitants2. (Peoples) of or relating to Saudi Arabia or its inhabitantsn (Peoples) a native or inhabitant of Saudi ArabiaCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014Sau?di (?sa? di, ?s?-, s??u-) n., pl. -dis, adj. n. 1. Saudi Arabian. 2. a member of the Saud family of Arabia, rulers of most of the Arabian Peninsula since 1932. adj. 3. Saudi Arabian. 4. of or pertaining to the Saud family. [1930?35;