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La Paz

La Paz

7 1.9
The capital city of Bolivia where the country's government is based
  • proper noun
  • /lɑː pɑːz/
: La Paz
  • La Paz is the administrative seat of Bolivia's government, making it an important city in La Paz.

Examples

  • At one point, I found myself in La Paz in a room full of lawyers asking for my advice on reforming the Bolivian penal system.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The enchantment begins with an early morning arrival in La Paz.

    Academic text (2004)
  • No visit to La Paz would be complete without exploring them, so I set out on the second day to do just that.

    Academic text (2004)
  • You want to follow your friends to La Paz, Bolivia?

  • I've always had this idea that I want to be a chef in a hotel in La Paz.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • La Paz is built in a crater-like valley of the altiplano or high plain.

    Academic text (2004)
  • The blanket will be sold at the handicraft market in La Paz, which is frequented by tourists from all over the world.

    Academic text (2004)
  • In protest, over 3,000 peasant farmers set out to march 360 miles from their fields in Cochabamba to the capital, La Paz.

  • I wanted to revisit the magical places of that year—La Paz, Tiahuanaco, Lake Titicaca—to see if they were as good as I remembered them.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Tourists flock to La Paz to experience its vibrant culture and stunning landscapes.

Surface Forms

La Paz main

Morphology

La + Paz

La Paz is a lexicalized toponym whose referent (the Bolivian administrative capital) cannot be derived from the constituent Spanish words 'La' and 'Paz'. Even if a learner recognizes them as 'the' + 'peace', that literal composition does not predict that the phrase names a specific city, and place names are typically arbitrary across languages.

Etymology

La Paz was named by Spanish settlers and comes from La + Paz, which means 'the peace'. One popular story says it was given this name when a local conflict ended, so the city's name remembers 'peace' today.