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Glite Dictionary
Baja California

Baja California

2 5.0
A long strip of land with mountains in northwest Mexico between the Pacific and the Gulf of California
  • proper noun
translation icon : Baja California
  • The beautiful beaches of Baja California attract tourists from around the world.
  • Baja California Peninsula
  • Baja California, Mexico
  • northern Baja California

Examples

  • In prehistoric times, California condors ranged from southern British Columbia to Baja California and across the southern United States to Florida.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Pesticides pose risks to human life and ecosystems in intensively cultivated regions, especially irrigated areas in Baja California, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Tamaulipas.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Political factors, at both the national and regional levels in Mexico, facilitated and encouraged Chinese settlement in northern Baja California.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Four basking sharks were recorded off northwest Baja California, Mexico.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The small-scale coastal fishing settlements throughout the Baja California Peninsula are relatively new.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Articles this year report on angling off Baja California, Mexico, and British Columbia and Labrador, Canada.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Lick Observatory sent a party to Baja California, near Ensenada, headed by Wright.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Two new technology parks in Chihuahua, Mexico, hope to lure R&D work that might otherwise gravitate to Mexico City or Baja California.

    Academic text (2009)

  • DNA analyses confirm that female bats migrate from Jalisco, Mexico, to Arizona, Sonora, and Baja California.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Ernesto Ruffo Appel, appointed Mexican "czar" for North American environmental issues, is a former governor of Baja California who established the state's Secretariat of Environment:

    Academic text (2001)

Synonyms

Baja
vsBaja California
24 5.1

A long strip of land in northwestern Mexico with beaches and desert

is the full formal name used for the peninsula in northwestern Mexico
Lower California
vsBaja California
4.7

A mountainous peninsula in northwestern Mexico also called Baja California

is the standard modern name for that peninsula
Baja California Peninsula
vsBaja California
6.7

A long narrow peninsula with mountains in northwest Mexico that separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California

is the basic geographic name without stressing shape or separation

Surface Forms

Baja California main

Morphology

Baja + California

This is a lexicalized place name composed of recognizable elements: a learner who knows 'California' (a region) and 'baja' (Spanish for 'lower' / denoting the southern/low part) can infer it refers to a part of California or a southern region related to California, so there is some compositional cue. However, as a proper noun the precise sense — a specific mountainous peninsula in northwest Mexico — is conventionalized and not fully predictable from the parts, so full understanding requires prior knowledge or exposure.

Etymology

The place name Baja California comes from Spanish: baja means 'lower' and they used it with California to name the land that lies south of what is now US California. So, the name means 'Lower California' and refers to the long peninsula in northwest Mexico.