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Glite Dictionary
Lake Chad

Lake Chad

3.5
A large shallow lake in north-central Africa bordering Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon
  • proper noun
translation icon : Lago Chad
  • Many migratory birds stop at Lake Chad during their seasonal journeys.

Examples

  • This is Lake Chad, once one of the largest lakes in the world.

    An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

  • Fishermen rely heavily on the resources of Lake Chad for their livelihoods.

  • The shrinking size of Lake Chad has become a major concern for environmentalists.

Synonyms

Chad
vsLake Chad
54 4.2

A large lake in north-central Africa mainly in Chad

uses the full place name including the generic water type term

Surface Forms

Lake Chad main

Morphology

lake + Chad

This is a straightforward toponym: combining the common noun 'lake' with the proper name 'Chad' denotes a lake called Chad, so a B1 learner who knows 'lake' and the place-name 'Chad' can infer it refers to a body of water named Chad. The 'Lake X' naming pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows a transparent compositional pattern, making the meaning predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Lake Chad gets its name from a word in a local language that meant 'large lake' or 'sea'. The region, and later the country called Chad, took its name from the lake, so the name simply points to a big body of water in central Africa.