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Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

11 6.9
A landlocked country in Central Asia next to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China, independent since 1991
  • proper noun
  • /ˈkɪrɡɪzˌstæn/
translation icon : Kirguistán
  • About 50 percent of Kyrgyzstan's budgetary expenditures had been financed in the past by subsidies from Moscow.
  • Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan
  • Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan
  • Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

This is in the book that was stopped on the tarmac in Kyrgyzstan, right?

Examples

  • In 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

  • Mr Biden asked Mr Putin to deploy American troops in Central Asian countries, in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

  • With GDP growing by 1 percent in 1995, there were signs that the economy of Kyrgyzstan was beginning to recover.

    Academic text (1998)
  • We remember the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.

  • The article begins by providing an overview of the economic changes in Kyrgyzstan since it gained political independence in 1991.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Moreover, Kyrgyzstan was the first Central Asian state to commit itself to wide-ranging market reforms.

    Academic text (1998)
  • In Kyrgyzstan, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev broke a promise to Moscow to close the U.S. air base there.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Like the new state of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan had no notion of nationhood before 1991.

    Academic text (2000)
  • The newly independent states of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan all have cultivated what we call cognitive nationalism.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Unlike Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, in Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, the IRP has had a considerably smaller following.

    Academic text (1994)

Synonyms

Kirghizstan
vsKyrgyzstan
1 8.0

A landlocked country in Central Asia now officially called Kyrgyzstan

describes the country by its standard modern name instead
Kirghizia
vsKyrgyzstan
1 9.7

A former name for Kyrgyzstan used until 1991

refers to the nation now by its modern independent name
Kirgizstan
vsKyrgyzstan
6.7

A country in Central Asia, also called Kyrgyzstan, known for its high mountains

is the standard modern name used after independence in 1991
Kyrgyz Republic
vsKyrgyzstan
  • Formal
7.5

The official name of Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked country in Central Asia

is the regular country name used in everyday references
Kirgiz
vsKyrgyzstan
8.8

An alternative spelling of Kyrgyzstan, the landlocked country in Central Asia

refers to the same country but uses the standard current spelling
Kirgizia
vsKyrgyzstan
  • Literature
9.6

A former name for Kyrgyzstan used during the Soviet era

uses the current post-1991 name instead

Surface Forms

Kyrgyzstan main

Morphology

Kyrgyzstan = Kyrgyz (semi-transparent) = Kyrgyz + stan

The structure 'Kyrgyz' + '-stan' clearly signals a place name formed with a place-name suffix, but the suffix '-stan' (meaning 'land of') may not be familiar or productive for all learners.

Etymology

Kyrgyzstan comes from the people called the Kyrgyz and the Persian ending -stan, which means 'land', as in Pakistan. A helpful way to remember it is that Kyrgyz may come from a word for 'forty' and a story about 'forty tribes' joining together, so Kyrgyzstan is the 'land of the Kyrgyz' or the 'land of the forty'.