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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

1 1.0
An island country in the Indian Ocean southeast of India
  • proper noun
translation icon : Sri Lanka
  • Now in his eighties, Clarke resides in Sri Lanka, where he has been since the mid-1950s.

Examples

  • Edith and I, we're actually thinking of going to Sri Lanka next year for our holidays.

  • Clarke has been chancellor of the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka since 1979 and of the International Space University since 1989.

    Academic text (2000)
  • I believe Sri Lanka is such a case.

    Academic text (2007)
  • The island of Sri Lanka

    Academic text (2007)
  • In Sri Lanka, identification of the dead was not a high priority in the acute phase.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Recent extensive surveys in Sri Lanka failed to turn up 19 species represented in museum collections from the region.

    Academic text (2007)
  • A number of factors were responsible for the strengthening of the Tamil element in northern Sri Lanka in this period.

    Blog text (29)
  • The reason for the high percentage of widows can be attributed to the war in Sri Lanka, which was officially brought to an end in May 2009.

    Blog text (29)
  • Nearly 450,000 women workers are presently employed in the garment industry, which accounts for 52 percent of Sri Lanka's exports.

    Blog text (29)
  • Many tourists visit Sri Lanka to experience its beautiful beaches.

Synonyms

Lanka
vsSri Lanka
  • Archaic
51 8.9

An old poetic name for the island nation Sri Lanka

is the everyday neutral geographic name rather than poetic form
Ceylon
vsSri Lanka
  • Literature
4 6.0

The old name for Sri Lanka, an island in the Indian Ocean

is the current name used today for the island country

The official name of the country Sri Lanka

is the common geographic name for the island nation

Surface Forms

Sri Lanka main

Morphology

Sri + Lanka

S̶r̶i̶ ̶L̶a̶n̶k̶a̶ is a proper name formed from the honorific 'Sri' + the toponym 'Lanka'; a learner who knows these constituents can infer it names a person/place and that 'Lanka' refers to the island/place, but they would not automatically derive the full sense 'an island country in South Asia' or its geographic details. Because the parts signal a place-name structure (partially informative) but do not fully predict the specific country/geography, the item is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Sri Lanka comes from an old Indian language. Here, Sri is a respectful word meaning 'holy' or 'resplendent' and Lanka was the island's name in ancient stories, so the name pictures a 'holy' or 'glorious island'.