RUSSIA

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Russia mean? 

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

1. a former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia; established in 1922; included Russia and 14 other soviet socialist republics (Ukraine and Byelorussia and others); officially dissolved 31 December 1991

2. formerly the largest Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR occupying eastern Europe and northern Asia

3. a former empire in eastern Europe and northern Asia created in the 14th century with Moscow as the capital; powerful in the 17th and 18th centuries under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great when Saint Petersburg was the capital; overthrown by revolution in 1917

4. a federation in northeastern Europe and northern Asia; formerly Soviet Russia; since 1991 an independent state

  Familiarity information: RUSSIA used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUSSIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia; established in 1922; included Russia and 14 other soviet socialist republics (Ukraine and Byelorussia and others); officially dissolved 31 December 1991

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Russia; Soviet Union; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; USSR

Instance hypernyms:

country; land; state (the territory occupied by a nation)

Meronyms (parts of "Russia"):

Russia; Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; Soviet Russia (formerly the largest Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR occupying eastern Europe and northern Asia)

Soviet Socialist Republic (one of the states that formerly made up the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991))

Caspian; Caspian Sea (a large saltwater lake between Iran and Russia fed by the Volga River; the largest inland body of water in the world)

Domain member region:

steppe (extensive plain without trees (associated with eastern Russia and Siberia))

tovarich; tovarisch (a comrade (especially in Russian communism))

Isaac Stern; Stern (United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920))

balagan (a word for chaos or fiasco borrowed from modern Hebrew (where it is a loan word from Russian))

svoboda ((Russia) freedom)

kvass (fermented beverage resembling beer but made from rye or barley)

pirogi; piroshki; pirozhki (small fruit or meat turnover baked or fried)

razbliuto (the sentimental feeling you have about someone you once loved but no longer do)

Russian (the Slavic language that is the official language of Russia)

October Revolution; Russian Revolution (the coup d'etat by the Bolsheviks under Lenin in November 1917 that led to a period of civil war which ended in victory for the Bolsheviks in 1922)

kolkhoz (a collective farm owned by the communist state)

February Revolution; Russian Revolution (the revolution against the czarist government which led to the abdication of Nicholas II and the creation of a provisional government in March 1917)

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

Eurasia (the land mass formed by the continents of Europe and Asia)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Formerly the largest Soviet Socialist Republic in the USSR occupying eastern Europe and northern Asia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Russia; Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic; Soviet Russia

Instance hypernyms:

Soviet Socialist Republic (one of the states that formerly made up the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991))

Meronyms (members of "Russia"):

Komi (a member of a Finnish people living in the northwestern Urals in Russia)

Cheremis; Cheremiss; Mari (a member of a rural Finnish people living in eastern Russia)

Inger; Ingerman; Ingrian (a member of western Finnish people formerly living in the Baltic province where Saint Petersburg was built)

Mordva; Mordvin; Mordvinian (a member of the agricultural people living in the central Volga provinces of European Russia)

Veps; Vepse; Vepsian (a member of a Finnish people of Russia)

Mansi; Vogul (a member of a nomadic people of the northern Urals)

Russian (a native or inhabitant of Russia)

Domain member region:

Borodino (Napoleon defeated the Russians in 1812 in a pitched battle at a village in western Russia west of Moscow, but irreparably weakened his army)

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

Russia; Soviet Union; Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; USSR (a former communist country in eastern Europe and northern Asia; established in 1922; included Russia and 14 other soviet socialist republics (Ukraine and Byelorussia and others); officially dissolved 31 December 1991)

Eurasia (the land mass formed by the continents of Europe and Asia)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A former empire in eastern Europe and northern Asia created in the 14th century with Moscow as the capital; powerful in the 17th and 18th centuries under Peter the Great and Catherine the Great when Saint Petersburg was the capital; overthrown by revolution in 1917

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (parts of "Russia"):

Muscovy (a Russian principality in the 13th to 16th centuries; Moscow was the capital)

Domain member region:

czar; tsar; tzar (a male monarch or emperor (especially of Russia prior to 1917))

Aleksandr Pavlovich; Alexander I; Czar Alexander I (the czar of Russia whose plans to liberalize the government of Russia were unrealized because of the wars with Napoleon (1777-1825))

Alexander II; Alexander the Liberator; Czar Alexander II (the son of Nicholas I who, as czar of Russia, introduced reforms that included limited emancipation of the serfs (1818-1881))

Alexander III; Czar Alexander III (son of Alexander II who was czar of Russia (1845-1894))

Czar Nicholas I; Nicholas I (czar of Russia from 1825 to 1855 who led Russia into the Crimean War (1796-1855))

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

Eurasia (the land mass formed by the continents of Europe and Asia)

Derivation:

Russian (of or pertaining to or characteristic of Russia or its people or culture or language)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A federation in northeastern Europe and northern Asia; formerly Soviet Russia; since 1991 an independent state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Russia; Russian Federation

Instance hypernyms:

country; land; state (the territory occupied by a nation)

Meronyms (parts of "Russia"):

Stalingrad; Tsaritsyn; Volgograd (a city in the European part of Russia on the Volga; site of German defeat in World War II in the winter of 1942-43)

Smolensk (a city in western Russia on the Dnieper River; scene of severe fighting in World War II)

Novosibirsk (a city in the Asian part of Russia on the Ob river; largest city in Siberia)

Chelyabinsk; Omsk (a city in the Asian part of Russia)

Vladivostok (a seaport in the Asian part of Russia)

Ufa (a city in the European part of Russia)

Nova Zembla; Novaya Zemlya (two islands in the Arctic Ocean belonging to Russia; site of a test center for nuclear warheads)

Kola Peninsula (a peninsula in northwestern Russia projecting eastward between the Barents Sea and the White Sea)

Amur; Amur River; Heilong; Heilong Jiang (an Asian river between China and Russia; flows into the Sea of Okhotsk)

Dnieper; Dnieper River (a river that rises in Russia near Smolensk and flowing south through Belarus and Ukraine to empty into the Black Sea)

Don; Don River (a European river in southwestern Russia; flows into the Sea of Azov)

Ilmen; Lake Ilmen (a lake in northwestern Russia; drains through the Volkhov River into Lake Ladoga)

Ladoga; Lake Ladoga (a lake in northwestern Russia to the north of St. Petersburg; the largest lake in Europe; drains through the Neva River into the Gulf of Finland)

Lake Onega; Onega (lake in northwestern Russia near the border with Finland; second largest lake in Europe)

Neva; Neva River (a river in northwestern Russia flowing generally west into the Gulf of Finland)

Tien Shan; Tyan Shan (a major mountain range of central Asia; extends 1,500 miles)

Ural Mountains; Urals (a mountain range in western Russia extending from the Arctic to the Caspian Sea; forms part of the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia)

Vetluga; Vetluga River (a river in central Russia; flows generally southward into the Volga)

Volga; Volga River (a Russian river; the longest river in Europe; flows into the Caspian Sea)

Volkhov; Volkhov River (a river in northwestern Russia flowing generally north into Lake Ladoga)

Kazan (an industrial city in the European part of Russia)

Rostov; Rostov na Donu; Rostov on Don (a seaport on the Don River near the Sea of Azov in the European part of Russia)

Karelia (a region in Finland and Russia between the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea)

capital of the Russian Federation; Moscow; Russian capital (a city of central European Russia; formerly capital of both the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia; since 1991 the capital of the Russian Federation)

Astrakhan (a city in southwestern Russia on the delta of the Volga River)

Cherepovets (a city of east central Russia to the north of Moscow)

Chechen Republic; Chechenia; Chechnya (an autonomous republic in southwestern Russia in the northern Caucasus Mountains bordering on Georgia; declared independence from the USSR in 1991 but Russian troops invaded and continue to prosecute a relentless military campaign in the largely Muslim republic)

Grozny; Groznyy (the capital of Chechnya in southwestern Russia; center of extensive oil fields)

Kaluga (a city of central Russia to the south of Moscow)

Khabarovsk (an administrative territory in Russia on the eastern coast of Siberia)

Kursk (a city of southwestern Russia)

European Russia (the part of Russia that is part of Europe)

Gorki; Gorkiy; Gorky; Nizhni Novgorod; Nizhnyi Novgorod (an industrial city in the European part of Russia; birthplace of Maksim Gorky)

Leningrad; Peterburg; Petrograd; Saint Petersburg; St. Petersburg (a city in the European part of Russia; 2nd largest Russian city; located at the head of the Gulf of Finland; former capital of Russia)

Murmansk (a port city in northwestern Russia on the Kola Peninsula; the largest city to the north of the Arctic Circle; an important supply line to Russia in World War I and World War II)

Nalchik (a city in southwestern Russia in a valley of the Caucasus Mountains; an industrial center and health resort)

Novgorod (a city in northwestern Russia on the Volkhov River; Russia's oldest city and an important trading center in the Middle Ages)

Molotov; Perm (a city in the European part of Russia)

Saratov (an industrial city in the European part of Russia)

Siberia (a vast Asian region of Russia; famous for long cold winters)

Domain member region:

Foreign Intelligence Service; Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki; SVR (Russia's intelligence service responsible for foreign operations, intelligence-gathering and analysis, and the exchange of intelligence information; collaborates with other countries to oppose proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and organized crime)

Instance hyponyms:

Asian Russia (the Russia that is part of Asia)

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

Eurasia (the land mass formed by the continents of Europe and Asia)

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

CIS; Commonwealth of Independent States (an alliance made up of states that had been Soviet Socialist Republics in the Soviet Union prior to its dissolution in Dec 1991)

Derivation:

Russian (of or pertaining to or characteristic of Russia or its people or culture or language)

 Context examples 

Elements 115 and 117, moscovium and tennessine, were co-discovered by researchers in the United States and Russia.

(IUPAC proposes four new chemical element names, Wikinews)

It was in a city of Russia, a university—I will not name the place.

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

The climate affected his dye; it did very well in Russia, but it was no go here.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The wind blew him fifteen hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and he fell in the middle of Russia.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A country in southwestern Asia, bordering the Black Sea, between Turkey and Russia.

(Georgia (Republic), NCI Thesaurus)

Amidst the wilds of Tartary and Russia, although he still evaded me, I have ever followed in his track.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Half of the fragments found will remain in Iran, with the other half already back at the test lab in Russia.

(Huge Haul of Extraterrestrial Material Recovered from Iranian Desert, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Among other factors, the site was chosen for its geographical location, as the telescopes in Brazil and Russia will be positioned to capture complementary imagery.

(High tech Russian telescope to start operating in Brazil, Agência Brasil)

By contrast, the current storm, if it were happening on Earth, would cover the area of North America and Russia combined.

(Martian Dust Storm Grows Global: Curiosity Captures Photos of Thickening Haze, NASA)

A country in central Asia, northwest of China and south of Russia.

(Kazakhstan, NCI Thesaurus)