COLOMBIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Colombia mean? 

• COLOMBIA (noun)
  The noun COLOMBIA has 1 sense:

1. a republic in northwestern South America with a coastline on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; achieved independence from Spain in 1821 under the leadership of Simon Bolivar; Spanish is the official language

  Familiarity information: COLOMBIA used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLOMBIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A republic in northwestern South America with a coastline on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea; achieved independence from Spain in 1821 under the leadership of Simon Bolivar; Spanish is the official language

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Colombia; Republic of Colombia

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (parts of "Colombia"):

Orinoco; Orinoco River (a South American river 1,500 miles long; flows into the South Atlantic)

Magdalena; Magdalena River (a river that rises in the Andes mountains in southwestern Colombia and flows generally northward to empty into the Caribbean Sea at Barranquilla)

Arauca (a river that rises in northern Colombia and flows generally eastward to the Orinoco in central Venezuela)

Andes (a mountain range in South America running 5000 miles along the Pacific coast)

Barranquilla (a port city of northern Colombia near the Caribbean on the Magdalena River)

Bogota; capital of Colombia (capital and largest city of Colombia; located in central Colombia on a high fertile plain)

Cali (city in southwestern Colombia in a rich agricultural area)

Medellin (city in western Colombia; important coffee center)

Cartagena (a port city in northwestern Colombia on the Caribbean)

Soledad (a city in northern Colombia; a suburb of Barranquilla)

Galeras; Pasto (an active volcano in southeastern Colombia in the Andes)

Purace (an inactive volcano in the Andes in southern Colombia; last erupted in 1950)

Meronyms (members of "Colombia"):

Colombian (a native or inhabitant of Colombia)

Domain member region:

Cali cartel (a drug cartel that seized control of cocaine production in Colombia in 1993; adopted techniques used by terrorist organizations (small cells and sophisticated communications equipment and close ties with politicians etc.))

Medellin cartel (a drug cartel in Colombia; controlled the production of cocaine from the 1970s until 1993 when the leader was killed)

AUC; Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia; United Self-Defense Force of Colombia; United Self-Defense Group of Colombia (a terrorist organization in Colombia formed in 1997 as an umbrella for local and regional paramilitary groups; is financed by earnings from narcotics and serves to protect the economic interests of its members)

FARC; Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (a powerful and wealthy terrorist organization formed in 1957 as the guerilla arm of the Colombian communist party; opposed to the United States; has strong ties to drug dealers)

ELN; National Liberation Army (a Marxist terrorist group formed in 1963 by Colombian intellectuals who were inspired by the Cuban Revolution; responsible for a campaign of mass kidnappings and resistance to the government's efforts to stop the drug trade)

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

South America (a continent in the western hemisphere connected to North America by the Isthmus of Panama)

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

OAS; Organization of American States (an association including most countries in the western hemisphere; created in 1948 to promote military and economic and social and cultural cooperation)

Derivation:

Colombian (of or relating to or characteristic of Colombia or its people)

 Context examples 

The WHO resolution is sponsored by Costa Rica and Colombia and co-sponsored by 25 other countries.

(Snakebite resolution set for Health Assembly approval, SciDev.Net)

Ten countries account for 95 percent of this carbon storage potential, led by Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico.

(Natural regeneration of tropical forests helps global climate mitigation and forest restoration, NSF)

They verified that a total of 14,003 species of seed plant (any plant that bears seeds) exist in the Amazon forest stretching from Brazil to Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, the Guianas, and Suriname.

(Inventory revises down Amazon tree species list, SciDev.Net)

Scientists sequenced the DNA from two different species of Heliconius butterflies which live either side of the Andes mountains in Colombia.

(Butterflies are genetically wired to choose a mate that looks just like them, University of Cambridge)

According to the WMP, there are trials ongoing in Colombia, India, Sri Lanka and the Western Pacific island nations, driven by a large body of evidence indicating that establishing Wolbachia in local mosquito populations could safely reduce dengue infections.

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

The researchers took samples from the surfaces of 149 gravestones in the Cementerio de Montjuic in Barcelona, Spain; El Queremal Cementario in Valle de Cauca Province, Colombia; Dory Hill Cemetery in Black Hawk, Colorado; and other graveyards.

(Tales from the crypt: Life after death in a graveyard, National Science Foundation)