Definitions

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

  • A country of southern Africa on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Originally inhabited by the San and Khoikhoi, the region was settled by various Bantu peoples c. 1500. European settlement began with the Dutch in the mid-1600s. The region passed to Great Britain in 1814 but was hotly contested by descendants of the Dutch settlers in the Boer War (1899–1902), in which Britain took possession of the entire territory, creating the Union of South Africa in 1910. South Africa declared itself a republic in 1961, severed ties with the British Commonwealth, and further consolidated the apartheid system, which was repealed beginning in 1989. An interim constitution ending white rule was adopted in 1993, and the first multiracial elections were held in 1994. Pretoria is the administrative capital; Cape Town, the legislative capital; and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital. Johannesburg is the largest city.

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

  • proper noun Country in southern region of the African continent. Official name: Republic of South Africa.

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

  • noun a republic at the southernmost part of Africa; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1910; first European settlers were Dutch (known as Boers)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • You often still see guys selling bags of these by the roadside in South Africa - the Afrikaans word for them is turksvy literally, a Turkish fig!

    At My Table 2007

  • OKE: It's hard to believe when you see the doctor doing his rounds that he also has the sort of physique that's earned him the title South Africa's sexiest man.

    CNN Transcript Feb 17, 2007 2007

  • In a report released at the launch of the congress the MDC rapped what it termed South Africa's lack of honesty in past efforts to broker a compromise between the MDC and Zimbabwe's ruling party.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2006

  • He also paid tribute to what he called South Africa's pioneering role and President Thabo Mbeki's resolute leadership on the African continent, which today was the first to devise answers to the substantial challenges facing it.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2003

  • Though it did not directly blame the National Intelligence Agency for what it called South Africa's own Watergate, the DP said some of the monitoring was being done from an adjacent government office block.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2000

  • Though it did not directly blame the National Intelligence Agency for what it called South Africa's own Watergate, the DP said some of the monitoring was being done from an adjacent government office block.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1999

  • The report also deplores what it calls South Africa's

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • The report also deplores what it calls South Africa's

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • Police commissioner George Fivaz said in a statement such deaths should be seen against what he described as South Africa's culture of killer crime, and the threat it posed to the police and the public.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • The statement said Omar thanked member states for their confidence despite what he described as South Africa's destructive history and the role played by the previous government.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1997

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