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Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe

3 2.7
A large clear lake with fresh water on the border of Nevada and California popular for skiing and summer holidays
  • proper noun
  • /leɪk ˈtɑːhoʊ/
translation icon : Lago Tahoe
  • During winter, Lake Tahoe becomes a popular destination for skiing and snowboarding.
  • South Lake Tahoe
  • Lake Tahoe, California
  • Lake Tahoe, Nevada

Examples

  • A researcher measures water clarity in Lake Tahoe using a Secchi disk.

    Blog text (8)
  • "Because Lake Tahoe is still very clean and relatively pristine, it has a high signal-to-noise ratio," explained Schladow.

    Blog text (8)
  • Ruth, Art, and the girls had driven the two hundred miles to Lake Tahoe for the Days of No Talk, as they called them.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Citizens in the Lake Tahoe region were shocked to learn that the lake was warming.

    Blog text (8)
  • At 1,645 feet deep, Lake Tahoe is one of the deepest lakes in the world.

    Blog text (8)
  • Their series of legal thrillers features sole practitioner Nina Reilly, a single mom with a law office in Lake Tahoe.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Many tourists flock to Lake Tahoe each summer to enjoy boating and hiking.

  • The clear waters of Lake Tahoe attract many swimmers and fishermen every year.

Surface Forms

Lake Tahoe main

Morphology

lake + Tahoe

This is a compositional place name: 'lake' (a body of water) plus the proper name 'Tahoe', so a B1 learner who knows 'lake' will infer it denotes a lake called Tahoe. Proper names do not encode additional descriptive details (location, clarity, resort status), but the basic referent (that it is a lake) is immediately transparent.

Etymology

Lake Tahoe comes from a word in the local Washo language that meant 'lake', so adding the English word Lake made the name mean 'lake lake'. That's why the name simply points to the big, clear lake between Nevada and California.