PALESTINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Palestine mean? 

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

1. a former British mandate on the east coast of the Mediterranean; divided between Jordan and Israel in 1948

2. an ancient country in southwestern Asia on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea; a place of pilgrimage for Christianity and Islam and Judaism

  Familiarity information: PALESTINE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PALESTINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A former British mandate on the east coast of the Mediterranean; divided between Jordan and Israel in 1948

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

mandate; mandatory (a territory surrendered by Turkey or Germany after World War I and put under the tutelage of some other European power until they are able to stand by themselves)

Domain member region:

Al Nathir (a Palestinian terrorist organization formed in 2002 and linked to Fatah movement of Yasser Arafat)

Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine; DFLP; PDFLP; Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a Marxist-Leninist group that believes Palestinian goals can only be achieved by revolutionary change)

Abu Nidal Organization; ANO; Arab Revolutionary Brigades; Black September; Fatah-RC; Fatah Revolutionary Council; Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims (a Palestinian international terrorist organization that split from the PLO in 1974; has conducted terrorist attacks in 20 countries)

Forces of Umar Al-Mukhtar; Umar al-Mukhtar Forces (a little known Palestinian group responsible for bombings and for killing Israelis; seeks to defeat Israel and liberate southern Lebanon, Palestine, and Golan Heights)

Harakat al-Jihad al-Islami al-Filastini; Palestine Islamic Jihad; Palestinian Islamic Jihad; PIJ (a militant Palestinian terrorist group created in 1979 and committed to the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine and to the destruction of Israel; smaller and more exclusively militant that Hamas)

Palestinian Hizballah (a little known Palestinian group comprised of members of Hamas and Tanzim with suspected ties to the Lebanese Hizballah; responsible for suicide bombings in Israel)

PFLP; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (a terrorist group of limited popularity formed in 1967 after the Six-Day War; combined Marxist-Leninist ideology with Palestinian nationalism; used terrorism to gain attention for their cause; hoped to eliminate the state of Israel)

Palestine Liberation Organization; PLO (a political movement uniting Palestinian Arabs in an effort to create an independent state of Palestine; when formed in 1964 it was a terrorist organization dominated by Yasser Arafat's al-Fatah; in 1968 Arafat became chairman; received recognition by the United Nations and by Arab states in 1974 as a government in exile; has played a largely political role since the creation of the Palestine National Authority)

al-Asifa; al-Fatah; Fatah (a Palestinian political and military organization founded by Yasser Arafat in 1958 to work toward the creation of a Palestinian state; during the 1960s and 1970s trained terrorist and insurgent groups)

Derivation:

Palestinian (of or relating to the area of Palestine and its inhabitants)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An ancient country in southwestern Asia on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea; a place of pilgrimage for Christianity and Islam and Judaism

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Canaan; Holy Land; Palestine; Promised Land

Instance hypernyms:

geographic area; geographic region; geographical area; geographical region (a demarcated area of the Earth)

Meronyms (parts of "Palestine"):

Juda; Judah (an ancient kingdom of southern Palestine with Jerusalem as its center)

Judaea; Judea (the southern part of ancient Palestine succeeding the kingdom of Judah; a Roman province at the time of Christ)

Samaria (an ancient city in central Palestine founded in the 9th century BC as the capital of the northern Hebrew kingdom of Israel; the site is in present-day northwestern Jordan)

Philistia (an ancient region on the coast of southwestern Palestine that was strategically located on a trade route between Syria and Egypt; important in biblical times)

Jordan; Jordan River (a river in Palestine that empties into the Dead Sea; John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan)

Domain member region:

chebab (a Palestinian juvenile 10-15 years old who fights against the Israelis)

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

Asia (the largest continent with 60% of the earth's population; it is joined to Europe on the west to form Eurasia; it is the site of some of the world's earliest civilizations)

Derivation:

Palestinian (of or relating to the area of Palestine and its inhabitants)

 Context examples 

Though probably present in towns in Palestine as long ago as 7000 years, actual domestication occurred in Egypt about 4000 years ago.

(Cat, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Denotes those persons of mainly Arabic speakers who regard themselves as a distinct branch of the Arabic-speaking peoples, with family origin in Palestine being the defining characteristic.

(Palestinian, NCI Thesaurus)

A collective name for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, two territories in Palestine.

(Palestinian Territory, Occupied, NCI Thesaurus)