AUSTRALIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Australia mean? 

• AUSTRALIA (noun)
  The noun AUSTRALIA has 2 senses:

1. a nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; Aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colony

2. the smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean

  Familiarity information: AUSTRALIA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUSTRALIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; Aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colony

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Australia; Commonwealth of Australia

Instance hypernyms:

country; land; state (the territory occupied by a nation)

Meronyms (parts of "Australia"):

Norfolk Island (an island territory of Australia in the Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of Australia; formerly a British penal colony)

Northern Territory (a territory in north central Australia)

Nullarbor Plain (a vast arid plain of southern Australia stretching inland from the Great Australian Bight; has sparse vegetation and no surface water and is almost uninhabited; the site of a major rocket research center)

Gibson Desert (a desert area in western Australia)

Great Sandy Desert (a desert region in northwestern Australia to the north of the Gibson Desert)

Great Victoria Desert (a desert region in south central Australia to the north of the Nullarbor Plain)

Simpson Desert (a desert region of central Australia)

Australian Alps (a range of mountains in Australia that forms the southern end of the Great Dividing Range)

Carpentaria; Gulf of Carpentaria (a wide shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea in northern Australia)

Cape York (the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula at the Torres Strait; the northernmost point of the Australian mainland)

Cape York Peninsula (a peninsula in Queensland in northeastern Australia between the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Coral Sea)

Eyre; Lake Eyre (a shallow salt lake in south central Australia about 35 feet below sea level; the largest lake in the country and the lowest point on the continent)

Eyre Peninsula (a peninsula of southern Australia)

Great Australian Bight (a wide bay of the Indian Ocean in southern Australia; notorious for storms)

Great Barrier Reef (the largest coral reef in the world; in the Coral Sea off the northeastern coast of Australia)

Eastern Highlands; Great Dividing Range (a mountain range running along the eastern coast of Australia)

Western Australia (a state containing the western third of Australia)

Namoi; Namoi River (a river in southeastern Australia that flows generally northwest to join the Darling River)

Murrumbidgee; Murrumbidgee River (a river of southeastern Australia; flows westward into the Murray River)

Murray; Murray River (a southeast Australian river; flows westward and then south into the Indian Ocean at Adelaide)

Australian capital; Canberra; capital of Australia (the capital of Australia; located in southeastern Australia)

Australian state (one of the several states constituting Australia)

Queensland (a state in northeastern Australia)

New South Wales (an Australian state in southeastern Australia)

Victoria (a state in southeastern Australia)

Tasmania (an Australian state on the island of Tasmania)

South Australia (a state in south central Australia)

Meronyms (members of "Australia"):

Aussie; Australian (a native or inhabitant of Australia)

Domain member region:

perisher (bounder)

returning officer (the official in each electorate who holds the election and returns the results)

boomerang; throw stick; throwing stick (a curved piece of wood; when properly thrown will return to thrower)

sundowner (a tramp who habitually arrives at sundown)

swagger; swaggie; swagman (an itinerant Australian laborer who carries his personal belongings in a bundle as he travels around in search of work)

Keith Rupert Murdoch; Murdoch; Rupert Murdoch (United States publisher (born in Australia in 1931))

Cercospora kopkei; yellow spot fungus (fungus causing yellow spot (a sugarcane disease in Australia))

gilgai soil (soil in the melon holes of Australia)

bonzer (remarkable or wonderful)

sealed (having been paved)

pom; pommy (a disparaging term for a British person)

mate (informal term for a friend of the same sex)

walkabout (nomadic excursions into the bush made by an Aborigine)

lagerphone (an Australian percussion instrument used for playing bush music; a long stick with bottle caps nailed loosely to it; played by hitting it with a stick or banging it on the ground)

swag (a bundle containing the personal belongings of a swagman)

tucker-bag (a bag used for carrying food)

Aboriginal Australian; Australian (the Austronesian languages spoken by Australian aborigines)

plonk (a cheap wine of inferior quality)

billabong (a stagnant pool of water in the bed of a stream that flows intermittently)

Holonyms ("Australia" is a part of...):

Australia (the smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean)

Holonyms ("Australia" is a member of...):

British Commonwealth; Commonwealth of Nations (an association of nations consisting of the United Kingdom and several former British colonies that are now sovereign states but still pay allegiance to the British Crown)

British Empire (a former empire consisting of Great Britain and all the territories under its control; reached its greatest extent at the end of World War I; it included the British Isles, British West Indies, Canada, British Guiana; British West Africa, British East Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand)

Derivation:

Australian (of or relating to or characteristic of Australia or its inhabitants or its languages)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The smallest continent; between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Instance hypernyms:

continent (one of the large landmasses of the earth)

Meronyms (parts of "Australia"):

Murrumbidgee; Murrumbidgee River (a river of southeastern Australia; flows westward into the Murray River)

Murray; Murray River (a southeast Australian river; flows westward and then south into the Indian Ocean at Adelaide)

Moreton Bay (an arm of the Tasman Sea forming a bay to the east of Brisbane)

Eastern Highlands; Great Dividing Range (a mountain range running along the eastern coast of Australia)

Great Barrier Reef (the largest coral reef in the world; in the Coral Sea off the northeastern coast of Australia)

Great Australian Bight (a wide bay of the Indian Ocean in southern Australia; notorious for storms)

Eyre Peninsula (a peninsula of southern Australia)

Eyre; Lake Eyre (a shallow salt lake in south central Australia about 35 feet below sea level; the largest lake in the country and the lowest point on the continent)

Darling; Darling River (an Australian river; tributary of the Murray River)

Cape York Peninsula (a peninsula in Queensland in northeastern Australia between the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Coral Sea)

Cape York (the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula at the Torres Strait; the northernmost point of the Australian mainland)

Australian Alps (a range of mountains in Australia that forms the southern end of the Great Dividing Range)

Australian Desert; Great Australian Desert (general name given to all desert areas in Australia)

Tasmania (an island off the southeastern coast of Australia)

Australia; Commonwealth of Australia (a nation occupying the whole of the Australian continent; Aboriginal tribes are thought to have migrated from southeastern Asia 20,000 years ago; first Europeans were British convicts sent there as a penal colony)

Instance hyponyms:

Carpentaria; Gulf of Carpentaria (a wide shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea in northern Australia)

Holonyms ("Australia" is a part of...):

eastern hemisphere; orient (the hemisphere that includes Eurasia and Africa and Australia)

southern hemisphere (the hemisphere to the south of the equator)

 Context examples 

The smoke reached Latin America more than a month after the fires started in Australia, for example, after being dispersed by Pacific Ocean winds in its path.

(Australian bushfire smoke drifts to South America, SciDev.Net)

Scientists from the World Mosquito Program (WMP), who conducted the trials in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Vietnam, told that Wolbachia works by inhibiting reproduction of the viral pathogens while inside the mosquitoes.

(Bacteria-infected mosquitoes slash dengue cases, SciDev.Net)

The studies that were reviewed included people from seven different countries – the US, Canada, Spain, Italy, Australia, Switzerland and China.

(People Living Near Parks in Cities Less Likely to Face Early Death, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

We see that as a really exciting opportunity to decarbonize the transport sector, but also position Australia as one of the lead suppliers of hydrogen around the world.

(Cars Powered by New Fuel Type Tested in Australia, VOA)

Researchers in Australia believe the technology would be able to change the path of orbital junk to prevent collisions with satellites.

(Australia Developing Lasers to Track, Destroy Space Junk, VOA)

“No one can't reproach my darling in Australia. We will begin a new life over theer!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Florence was discovered in 1981 by astronomer Schelte "Bobby" Bus at Australia's Siding Spring Observatory and named after Florence Nightingale, the nursing pioneer.

(Biggest Asteroid Ever Detected Flies Past Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Bushfires are a common and deadly threat in Australia's hot, dry summers, fueled by highly flammable eucalyptus trees.

(Australian Wildfires Destroy Homes, Kill Cattle as Hundreds of People Flee, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Most common cause of primary glomerular disease in Europe, Australia, and United States; lesions formed as a consequence of mesangial formations of immune deposits composed of IgA.

(IgA Nephropathy, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)

A mosquito-borne encephalitis caused by the Japanese B encephalitis virus (ENCEPHALITIS VIRUS, JAPANESE) occurring throughout Eastern Asia and Australia.

(Japanese B Encephalitis, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)