Tarabulus Al-Gharb
- proper noun
:
Trípoli
- Tourists visiting Libya often start their journey in Tarabulus Al-Gharb.
Examples
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The climate of Tarabulus Al-Gharb is typically Mediterranean, with mild, wet winters.
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Many historical records refer to Tarabulus Al-Gharb as an important Mediterranean port.
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I visited Tarabulus Al-Gharb last summer.
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Have you ever been to Tarabulus Al-Gharb?
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Many historical records refer to Tarabulus Al-Gharb as an important Mediterranean port.
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The climate of Tarabulus Al-Gharb is typically Mediterranean, with mild, wet winters.
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Tourists visiting Libya often start their journey in Tarabulus Al-Gharb.
Synonyms
42
3.9
The capital and largest city of Libya on the Mediterranean coast
Surface Forms
Morphology
Tarabulus + Al-Gharb
This is an Arabic place name (Tarabulus Al-Gharb = Tripoli) composed of non‑English lexical items, so a B1 learner who only 'knows' the surface constituents in English cannot infer the meaning 'capital of Libya' from their parts. Toponyms and foreign proper names are language‑specific and arbitrary, making the referential meaning opaque without prior knowledge or cultural/lexical exposure.
Etymology
Tarabulus Al-Gharb comes from two parts: Tarabulus and Al-Gharb. Tarabulus is the Arabic form of 'Tripoli', from Greek for 'three cities' because the port first grew from three nearby towns, and Al-Gharb means 'the west', so the name points to the western port city that is now the capital of Libya.