EGYPT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Egypt mean? 

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

1. a republic in northeastern Africa known as the United Arab Republic until 1971; site of an ancient civilization that flourished from 2600 to 30 BC

2. an ancient empire to the west of Israel; centered on the Nile River and ruled by a Pharaoh; figured in many events described in the Old Testament

  Familiarity information: EGYPT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EGYPT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A republic in northeastern Africa known as the United Arab Republic until 1971; site of an ancient civilization that flourished from 2600 to 30 BC

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Arab Republic of Egypt; Egypt; United Arab Republic

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (parts of "Egypt"):

Libyan Desert (the northeastern part of the Sahara Desert in Libya and Egypt and Sudan)

Arabian Desert; Eastern Desert (a desert in Egypt between the Nile River and the Red Sea)

Suez Canal (a ship canal in northeastern Egypt linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea)

Suez (a city in northeastern Egypt at the head of the Gulf of Suez and at the southern end of the Suez Canal)

Sakkara; Saqqara; Saqqarah (a town in northern Egypt; site of the oldest Egyptian pyramids)

Thebes (an ancient Egyptian city on the Nile River that flourished from the 22nd century BC to the 18th century BC; today the archeological remains include many splendid temples and tombs)

El-Aksur; Luxor (a city in central Egypt on the east bank of the Nile that is a center for visitors to the ruins of and around Thebes)

Memphis (an ancient city of Egypt on the Nile (south of Cairo))

El Giza; Giza; Gizeh (an ancient Egyptian city on the west bank of the Nile opposite Cairo; site of three Great Pyramids and the Sphinx)

El Alamein (a village to the west of Alexandria on the northern coast of Egypt; the scene of a decisive Allied victory over the Germans in 1942)

Al Qahira; Cairo; capital of Egypt; Egyptian capital; El Qahira (the capital of Egypt and the largest city in Africa, located near the ancient cities of Memphis (capital of the Pharaohs), Giza (the pyramids of Giza) and Fustat (the first capital of Egypt under Arab rule); a major port just south of the Nile delta)

Assouan; Assuan; Aswan (an ancient city on the Nile in Egypt; two dams across the Nile have been built nearby)

Alexandria; El Iskandriyah (the chief port of Egypt; located on the western edge of the Nile delta on the Mediterranean Sea; founded by Alexander the Great; the capital of ancient Egypt)

Upper Egypt (one of the two main administrative districts of Egypt; extends south from Cairo to Sudan)

Lower Egypt (one of the two main administrative districts of Egypt; consists of the Nile delta)

Sinai; Sinai Peninsula (a peninsula in northeastern Egypt; at north end of Red Sea)

Lake Nasser; Nasser (lake in Egypt formed by dams built on the Nile River at Aswan)

Nile; Nile River (the world's longest river (4150 miles); flows northward through eastern Africa into the Mediterranean; the Nile River valley in Egypt was the site of the world's first great civilization)

Aswan High Dam; High Dam (one of the world's largest dams on the Nile River in southern Egypt)

Meronyms (members of "Egypt"):

Egyptian (a native or inhabitant of Egypt)

Domain member region:

al-Jihad; Egyptian Islamic Jihad; Islamic Jihad; Vanguards of Conquest (an Islamic extremist group active since the late 1970s; seeks to overthrow the Egyptian government and replace it with an Islamic state; works in small underground cells)

al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya; Islamic Group (a terrorist organization of militant Islamists organized into tiny cells of extreme fundamentalists; emerged during the 1970s mainly in Egyptian jails)

Al Alamayn; Battle of El Alamein; El Alamein (a pitched battle in World War II (1942) resulting in a decisive Allied victory by British troops under Montgomery over German troops under Rommel)

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

Middle East; Mideast; Near East (the area around the eastern Mediterranean; from Turkey to northern Africa and eastward to Iran; the site of such ancient civilizations as Phoenicia and Babylon and Egypt and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and Islam; had continuous economic and political turmoil in the 20th century)

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)

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

Arab League (an international organization of independent Arab states formed in 1945 to promote cultural and economic and military and political and social cooperation)

Derivation:

Egyptian (of or relating to or characteristic of Egypt or its people or their language)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An ancient empire to the west of Israel; centered on the Nile River and ruled by a Pharaoh; figured in many events described in the Old Testament

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Egypt; Egyptian Empire

Instance hypernyms:

empire; imperium (the domain ruled by an emperor or empress; the region over which imperial dominion is exercised)

Derivation:

Egyptian (of or relating to or characteristic of Egypt or its people or their language)

 Context examples 

He touched it once more, wishing us a good journey; and we left him standing on the pavement, as respectable a mystery as any pyramid in Egypt.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"You shall walk up the pyramids of Egypt!" he growled.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Denotes a person from any of the countries of southwest Asia and northeastern Africa; this region includes those countries east of Egypt and south of Turkey and extending to Iran in the east.

(Middle Eastern or North African, NCI Thesaurus)

It's past nine, and dark as Egypt. I can't stop here, for the house is full.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

These they compared to those of 26 modern ibises from different parts of Africa — ibises of this species disappeared from Egypt itself during modern times.

(Ancient Egyptians collected wild ibis birds for sacrifice, says study, Wikinews)

Titanosaurs are best known from Cretaceous rocks in South America, but efforts by the team include new titanosaur species discovered in Tanzania, Egypt and other parts of the African continent.

(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)

This study performed at Cairo University, Egypt, assessed the prevalence of grey hair in patients with coronary artery disease and whether it was an independent risk marker of disease.

(Grey Hair Linked with Increased Heart Disease Risk in Men, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The tomb was discovered by Egyptian archeologists and could boost Egypt's slowly recovering tourism industry.

(Egypt Announces Discovery of 3,500-Year-Old Luxor Tomb, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It is my analysis of the documents found in the Coptic monasteries of Syria and Egypt, a work which will cut deep at the very foundation of revealed religion.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was a rude, raw, primeval version of the Jews in Babylon or the Israelites in Egypt.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)