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
Word origin
C20: from Arabic al-qā`ida the base
Al Qaeda in American English
(æl ˈkeɪdə; ɑl ˈkaɪdə)
noun
a radical Islamic organization operating through an international network of secret cells: it claims to be engaged in a jihad and has been responsible for many acts of terrorism