al-Qae·da or al-Qai·da (?l-k??d?, -k??d?)n. An international organization of loosely affiliated cells that carry out attacks and bombings in the attempt to disrupt the economies and influence of Western nations and advance Islamic fundamentalism.[Arabic al-q?’ida, the base : al-, the + q?’ida, base, feminine active participle of qa’ada, to sit; see q?d in Semitic roots.]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.
Al Qa’ida
al-Qae·da or al-Qai·da (?l-k??d?, -k??d?)n. An international organization of loosely affiliated cells that carry out attacks and bombings in the attempt to disrupt the economies and influence of Western nations and advance Islamic fundamentalism.[Arabic al-q?’ida, the base : al-, the + q?’ida, base, feminine active participle of qa’ada, to sit; see q?d in Semitic roots.]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.al-Qaeda (æl?ka?d?; ælk???i?d?) or al-Qaidan (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a loosely-knit militant Islamic organization led and funded by Osama bin Laden, by whom it was established in the late 1980s from Arab volunteers who had fought the Soviet troops previously based in Afghanistan; known or believed to be behind a number of operations against Western, esp US, interests, including bomb attacks on two US embassies in Africa in 1998 and the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001[C20: from Arabic al-q?`ida the base]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014