CHAD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Chad mean? 

• CHAD (noun)
  The noun CHAD has 4 senses:

1. a small piece of paper that is supposed to be removed when a hole is punched in a card or paper tape

2. a lake in north central Africa; fed by the Shari river

3. a landlocked desert republic in north-central Africa; was under French control until 1960

4. a family of Afroasiatic tonal languages (mostly two tones) spoken in the regions west and south of Lake Chad in north central Africa

  Familiarity information: CHAD used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHAD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small piece of paper that is supposed to be removed when a hole is punched in a card or paper tape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("chad" is a kind of...):

paper (a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chad"):

dimple; dimpled chad; pregnant chad (a chad that has been punched or dimpled but all four corners are still attached)

hanging chad (a chad that is incompletely removed and hanging by one corner)

swinging chad (a chad that is incompletely removed and still attached at two corners)

tri-chad (a chad that is incompletely removed and still attached at three corners)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A lake in north central Africa; fed by the Shari river

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Chad; Lake Chad

Instance hypernyms:

lake (a body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land)

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

Africa (the second largest continent; located to the south of Europe and bordered to the west by the South Atlantic and to the east by the Indian Ocean)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A landlocked desert republic in north-central Africa; was under French control until 1960

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Chad; Republic of Chad; Tchad

Instance hypernyms:

African country; African nation (any one of the countries occupying the African continent)

Meronyms (parts of "Chad"):

capital of Chad; Fort-Lamy; N'Djamena; Ndjamena (the capital and largest city of Chad; located in the southwestern on the Shari river)

Meronyms (members of "Chad"):

Chadian (a native or inhabitant of Chad)

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

Africa (the second largest continent; located to the south of Europe and bordered to the west by the South Atlantic and to the east by the Indian Ocean)

Derivation:

Chadian (of or relating to or characteristic of the Republic of Chad or its people or language)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A family of Afroasiatic tonal languages (mostly two tones) spoken in the regions west and south of Lake Chad in north central Africa

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Chad; Chadic; Chadic language

Hypernyms ("Chad" is a kind of...):

Afrasian; Afrasian language; Afro-Asiatic; Afroasiatic; Afroasiatic language; Hamito-Semitic (a large family of related languages spoken both in Asia and Africa)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Chad"):

West Chadic (a group of Chadic languages spoken in northern Nigeria; Hausa in the most important member)

Biu-Mandara (a group of Chadic languages spoken in the border area between Cameroon and Nigeria south of Lake Chad)

East Chadic (a group of Chadic languages spoken in Chad)

Masa (an independent group of closely related Chadic languages spoken in the area between the Biu-Mandara and East Chadic languages)

 Context examples 

It's an indicator of declining water in the Chad Basin.

(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)

Lake Chad, which sits at the center of this transition zone, serves as a bellwether for changing conditions in the Sahel.

(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)

The entire Chad Basin falls in the region where the Sahara has crept southward, and the lake is drying out. t's a very visible footprint of reduced rainfall not just locally, but across the whole region.

(New study finds world’s largest desert, the Sahara, has grown by 10 percent since 1920, National Science Foundation)