Definitions

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

  • The Balkan Peninsula.
  • The Balkan Mountains.
  • The Balkan States.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • proper noun plural The countries occupying the Balkan Peninsula.
  • proper noun plural The Balkan mountains.

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

  • proper noun A geographical region in the southeast of Europe, roughly equivalent to the area covered by the former Yugoslav countries, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece and sometimes Romania.

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

  • noun the Balkan countries collectively
  • noun a large peninsula in southeastern Europe containing the Balkan Mountain Range
  • noun the major mountain range of Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Of Turkic origin. Compare Turkish balkan ("wooded mountain range").

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