Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A river of northeast Asia flowing about 4,400 km (2,730 mi) mainly along the border between China and Russia. One of the chief waterways of Asia, it drains into Tatar Strait opposite Sakhalin Island.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun The world's ninth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China, emptying into the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Tartary, where the mouth of the river faces the northern end of the island of Sakhalin.
  • proper noun Amur Region or Amurskaya Oblast - a federal subject of Russia, its administrative centre is Blagoveshchensk.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an Asian river between China and Russia; flows into the Sea of Okhotsk

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian Амур (Amur) of unknown origin, but most likely meaning "black river" or "black dragon," judging from Manchu sahaliyan ula "black river," Mongolian Хара-Мурэн (Khara-Muren) "black river," and Chinese 黑龍江 (heilong jiang) "black dragon river," hence the likely calques. The second syllable mur may be cognate with Mongolian muren "river," Korean (mur or mul) "water, river," obsolete Korean 미르 (mireu) "dragon," etc.

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Examples

  • The Siberian tiger – also known as the Amur tiger – nearly went extinct in the middle of the last century, when numbers fell below 50, but there are now thought to be more than 400 left in the wild.

    Russian tiger summit offers 'last chance' to save species in the wild Gethin Chamberlain in Delhi 2010

  • A wild river called the Amur on the Chinese – Russian border is global headquarters to the family Gruidae — the cranes.

    Birds Out of Time Flannery, Tim 2002

  • Baikal to the navigable course of the Amur was a short step, taken in

    Influences of Geographic Environment On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography Ellen Churchill Semple 1897

  • The Amur is a very fine river; I have gained more from it than I could have expected, and I have been wishing for a long time to share my transports with you, but the rascally steamer has been rocking all the seven days I have been on it, and prevents me writing properly.

    Letters of Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 1882

  • Siberian tigers, also known as Amur tigers, are classed as endangered by the World Conservation Union, with only about 500 tigers left in Russia's wild.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • Siberian tigers, also known as Amur tigers, are classed as endangered by the World Conservation Union, with only about 500 tigers left in Russia's wild.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • The Siberian tiger - also known as the Amur tiger - nearly went extinct in the middle of the last century, when numbers fell below 50, but there are now thought to be more than 400

    The Guardian World News Gethin Chamberlain 2010

  • Siberian tigers, also known as Amur tigers, are classed as endangered by the World Conservation Union, with only about 500 tigers left in Russia's wild.

    RIA Novosti 2010

  • The Siberian tiger - also known as the Amur tiger - nearly went extinct in the middle of the last century, when numbers fell below 50, but there are now thought to be more than 400

    The Guardian World News Gethin Chamberlain 2010

  • The Siberian tiger - also known as the Amur tiger - nearly went extinct in the middle of the last century, when numbers fell below 50, but there are now thought to be more than 400

    The Guardian World News 2010

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