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Glite Dictionary
Mozambique Channel

Mozambique Channel

4.2
A part of the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and southeast Africa
  • proper noun
translation icon : Canal de Mozambique
  • Welcome back, it's our third summer here at Little Happy an abandoned fishing village in the Mozambique Channel.

Examples

  • Many shipwrecks have occurred over the years in the dangerous waters of the Mozambique Channel.

  • There is also potential for oil exploration in the Mozambique Channel.

    Blog text (24)

  • The fishermen set sail from the harbor into the Mozambique Channel to catch tuna.

  • Tourists often visit the Mozambique Channel to enjoy its stunning coral reefs and marine life.

Surface Forms

Mozambique Channel main

Morphology

Mozambique + channel

The phrase is a place-name formed by a country name plus a geographic feature: knowing 'Mozambique' and 'channel' lets a learner infer it is a water passage associated with Mozambique (i.e. a sea channel near that country). This compositional naming pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily understand the MWE's basic meaning.

Etymology

Mozambique Channel gets its name from the country Mozambique and the word channel, which means a narrow part of the sea. It was named because this stretch of water runs along Mozambique's coast and sits between Madagascar and the coast of Africa, so today it means 'the sea passage' in that area.