World Health Organization
3
2.9
- proper noun
:
Organización Mundial de la Salud
- On a typical day, the city's air pollution is three times as bad as the standard deemed safe by the World Health Organization.
- World Health Organization
- World Health Organization (WHO)
- World Health Organization currently recommends
Examples
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A further estimate by the World Health Organization is that, in the period between 2030 and 2050, a quarter of a million deaths will occur on account of climate change and its related impact.
Academic text (2016) -
In 1984, it became official policy to attempt to lower total alcohol consumption by 25% by the year 2000, as proposed by the World Health Organization some years earlier.
Academic text (1998) -
I'm a doctor from the World Health Organization.
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The World Health Organization is preparing a team, but I want you there first.
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I'm Dr. Hopper with the World Health Organization.
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A prime example of this is the World Health Organization's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases.
Academic text (1993) -
According to the World Health Organization, globally, South African cities are reputed to have the highest levels of violent crime.
Academic text (1998) -
To give an example, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in eight deaths worldwide results from indoor or outdoor air pollution, totaling seven million deaths each year.
Academic text (2016) -
Though the Thai government denies it, the World Health Organization finds that HIV is epidemic in Thailand, with the largest segment of new cases among wives and girlfriends of men who buy sex from prostitutes.
Academic text (2003) -
In medical news today, the World Health Organization announced a new strategy for treating tuberculosis.
Synonyms
52
3.2
A United Nations agency that helps countries improve public health and medical care
1
3.5
A group of countries and people from many places that works on world problems like health or peace
1
3.5
A group of countries that work together to solve world problems
A worldwide organization that helps countries prevent disease and improve health
Surface Forms
Morphology
world + health + organization
The meaning is directly compositional: 'world' + 'health' + 'organization' denotes an organization concerned with health at a global scale. This follows common noun-compounding patterns found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the basic meaning (though they might not deduce specific institutional ties to the UN).
Etymology
World Health Organization comes from the idea of a group from many countries forming an organization to protect health across the world. So the name now means 'to organize health work around the world' and is used for the agency that helps countries fight disease and set health rules.