TONGA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Tonga mean? 

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

1. a monarchy on a Polynesian archipelago in the South Pacific; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1970

2. the language of the Tongan people of south central Africa (Zambia and Rhodesia)

  Familiarity information: TONGA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TONGA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A monarchy on a Polynesian archipelago in the South Pacific; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1970

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Friendly Islands; Kingdom of Tonga; Tonga

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (members of "Tonga"):

Tongan (a Polynesian native or inhabitant of Tonga)

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

Polynesia (the islands in the eastern part of Oceania)

Derivation:

Tongan (of or relating to the island monarchy of Tonga or its people)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The language of the Tongan people of south central Africa (Zambia and Rhodesia)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("Tonga" is a kind of...):

Bantoid language; Bantu (a family of languages widely spoken in the southern half of the African continent)

 Context examples 

Also called kava kava, rauschpfeffer, tonga, and yangona.

(Intoxicating pepper, NCI Dictionary)

Also called intoxicating pepper, rauschpfeffer, tonga, and yangona.

(Kava kava, NCI Dictionary)

A group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Australia, between Tonga and French Polynesia.

(Cook Islands, NCI Thesaurus)

A country in the Pacific, occupying an island in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Tonga and south of American Samoa.

(Niue, NCI Thesaurus)

In late December 2014, a submarine volcano in the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga erupted, sending a violent stream of steam, ash and rock into the air.

(NASA Shows New Tongan Island Made of Tuff Stuff, Likely to Persist Years, NASA)