IRELAND

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Ireland mean? 

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

1. a republic consisting of 26 of 32 counties comprising the island of Ireland; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1921

2. an island comprising the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

  Familiarity information: IRELAND used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IRELAND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A republic consisting of 26 of 32 counties comprising the island of Ireland; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1921

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Eire; Ireland; Irish Republic; Republic of Ireland

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (parts of "Ireland"):

Waterford (a port city in southern Ireland; famous for glass industry)

Tara (a village in eastern Ireland (northwest of Dublin); seat of Irish kings until 6th century)

Limerick (port city in southwestern Ireland)

Galway (a port city in western Ireland on Galway Bay)

Cork (a port city in southern Ireland)

capital of Ireland; Dublin; Irish capital (capital and largest city and major port of the Irish Republic)

Domain member region:

Dissident Irish Republican Army; Real IRA; Real Irish Republican Army; RIRA (a radical terrorist group that broke away in 1997 when the mainstream Provisional IRA proposed a cease-fire; has continued terrorist activities in opposition to any peace agreement)

IRA; Irish Republican Army; Provisional IRA; Provisional Irish Republican Army; Provos (a militant organization of Irish nationalists who used terrorism and guerilla warfare in an effort to drive British forces from Northern Ireland and achieve a united independent Ireland)

Catholic Reaction Force; INLA; Irish National Liberation Army; People's Liberation Army; People's Republican Army (a radical terrorist group dedicated to the removal of British forces from Northern Ireland and the unification of Ireland)

CIRA; Continuity Army Council; Continuity Irish Republican Army (a terrorist organization formed in Ireland in 1994 as a clandestine armed wing of Sinn Fein)

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

Emerald Isle; Hibernia; Ireland (an island comprising the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland)

Europe (the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use 'Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles)

Holonyms ("Ireland" 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)

Common Market; EC; EEC; EU; Europe; European Community; European Economic Community; European Union (an international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members)

Derivation:

Irelander (a native or inhabitant of Ireland)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An island comprising the republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Emerald Isle; Hibernia; Ireland

Instance hypernyms:

island (a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water)

Meronyms (parts of "Ireland"):

Aran Islands (three small islands belonging to Ireland at the entrance to Galway Bay)

Northern Ireland (a division of the United Kingdom located on the northern part of the island of Ireland)

Eire; Ireland; Irish Republic; Republic of Ireland (a republic consisting of 26 of 32 counties comprising the island of Ireland; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1921)

Meronyms (members of "Ireland"):

Irishwoman (a woman who is a native or inhabitant of Ireland)

Irishman (a man who is a native or inhabitant of Ireland)

Irelander; Irish person (a native or inhabitant of Ireland)

Domain member region:

Dana; Danu (Celtic goddess who was the mother of the Tuatha De Danann; identified with the Welsh Don)

Drogheda (in 1649 the place was captured by Oliver Cromwell, who massacred the Catholic inhabitants)

Fomor; Fomorian (one of a group of Celtic sea demons sometimes associated with the hostile power of nature)

Gwydion (Celtic sky god; a magician; giver of arts and civilization)

Ler; Lir (the sea personified; father of Manannan; corresponds to Welsh Llyr)

Lug; Lugh (ancient Celtic god)

Manannan (Celtic god of the sea; son of Ler)

Morrigan; Morrigu (Celtic war goddess)

Tuatha De; Tuatha De Danann (group of Celtic gods or demigods; ruled Ireland in the Golden Age)

banshee; banshie ((Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death)

macushla ((an Irish term of address expressing affection) darling)

O'Toole; Peter O'Toole; Peter Seamus O'Toole (British actor (born in Ireland in 1932))

Brigit (Celtic goddess of fire and fertility and agriculture and household arts and wisdom; later associated with Saint Bridget)

Dagda (chief Celtic god of the Tuatha De Danann; father of Angus Og and Brigit)

battle of Boyne; Boyne (a battle in the War of the Grand Alliance in Ireland in 1690; William III defeated the deposed James II and so ended the Catholicism that had been reintroduced in England by the Stuarts)

water spaniel (any dog of two large curly-coated breeds used for hunting waterfowl)

shillalah; shillelagh (a cudgel made of hardwood (usually oak or blackthorn))

patronym; patronymic (a family name derived from name of your father or a paternal ancestor (especially with an affix (such as -son in English or O'- in Irish) added to the name of your father or a paternal ancestor))

Irish; Irish Gaelic (the Celtic language of Ireland)

keen (a funeral lament sung with loud wailing)

ceilidh (an informal social gathering at which there is Scottish or Irish folk music and singing and folk dancing and story telling)

barmbrack (a rich currant cake or bun)

ben (a mountain or tall hill)

Ana (mother of the ancient Irish gods; sometimes identified with Danu)

Aengus; Angus; Angus Og; Oengus (Celtic god of love and beauty; patron deity of young men and women)

Boann (Celtic goddess; mother of Angus Og)

Instance hyponyms:

Erin (an early name of Ireland that is now used in poetry)

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

British Isles (Great Britain and Ireland and adjacent islands in the north Atlantic)

Derivation:

Irelander (a native or inhabitant of Ireland)

Irish (of or relating to or characteristic of Ireland or its people)

 Context examples 

You'll like Ireland, I think: they're such warm-hearted people there, they say.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Do you know, we asked her last night which way she would go to get to Ireland; and she said, she should cross to the Isle of Wight.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

They were laying themselves open to that very phrase—and to having it sent off in a letter to Maple Grove by one lady, to Ireland by another.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

In a study conducted in Ireland, scientists discovered that people who ate plenty of cheese do not have a higher cholesterol level than those who did not.

(Scientists Say Eating Cheese Can Help Weight Loss, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

By the way, are you by any chance the Malone who is expected to get his Rugby cap for Ireland?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some probability is lent to the theory by the fact that one of these students came from the north of Ireland, and, to the best of Miss Cushing’s belief, from Belfast.

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

Still, as I urged our leaving Ireland with such inquietude and impatience, my father thought it best to yield.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Denotes the inhabitants of Ireland, a person from there, or their descendants elsewhere.

(Irish, NCI Thesaurus)

No letter of condolence had been sent to Ireland.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Parboiling husked whole grain, on the other hand, not only reduces arsenic by 25 per cent, but also increases its calcium content significantly, according to the researchers from Bangladesh and Northern Ireland.

(Parboiling husked rice reduces arsenic content, SciDev.Net)