Central America
19
2.1
- proper noun
- /ˈsɛntrəl əˈmɛrɪkə/
:
Centroamérica
- Political conflicts and civil war have defined Central America for a long time.
- Central America, a region
- countries in Central America
- coast of Central America
I mean, he's taking kids to Africa or to Central America every three months.
- I mean, he's taking kids to Africa or to Central America every three months.
- Well, The thing is, is that Central America is known for its bananas.
- There are fewer, fewer immigrants coming from Central America and from Mexico.
- Most of the kids were immigrants from South Korea or from Central America or from Mexico.
- Very, very rare from Central America.
- Counter revolutions and see more about the caravan of people coming up from Central America.
- And so, yeah, we had, we studied Golden Wing Warblers and they winter in Central America and breed up in northern US and Canada.
- My father and I always joked that Costa Rica calls themselves the Switzerland of Central America.
- It's, it's hailed as a panacea for all these problems that Central America and in the Caribbean basin countries having.
- So South America, Central America, we know they're among the cartels would have let's go to Asia.
Examples
-
The President returned from Panama this evening after a three-day tour through Central America.
Fiction book (1995) -
A visit to this tiny country at the northern tip of Central America is a magnificent visit back in time.
-
To the people of Central America, I have a message for you straight from my heart and straight from the heart of the American people.
-
I went to Central America.
-
And my pilots were already flying from Central America to the United States.
-
Most of the kids were immigrants from South Korea or from Central America or from Mexico.
-
The Bush administration got off to a fast start on the two principal issues: Central America and debt.
Academic text (1991) -
Since the late 1980s, peasants throughout Central America have begun to coordinate political and economic strategy.
Academic text (1998) -
Honduras is a mountainous country in the middle of Central America.
Academic text (2013) -
The problem in Central America is growing worse.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the region between Mexico and South America' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'central' (in the middle) + 'America' (the Americas); although a conventional toponym, it literally denotes the central part of the American landmass. Cross-linguistically many languages form equivalent names the same way, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand the referent without prior exposure.
Etymology
Central America comes from central meaning 'in the middle' and America for the two big land areas, North and South America. Imagine a thin bridge of land between them, and that's why Central America refers to the countries 'between Mexico and South America'.