Definitions

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

  • A region of eastern Africa, comprising Zanzibar Island and several adjacent islands off the northeast coast of Tanzania. Arab and Portuguese traders visited the region in early times, and it was controlled by Omanis in the 1700s and 1800s before being established as a protectorate by Britain in 1890. Zanzibar became an independent sultanate in 1963, but a republic was declared after an uprising in 1964, and Zanzibar joined Tanganyika later that year to form Tanzania.
  • A city of Tanzania on the western coast of Zanzibar Island. Founded in the 1500s as a Portuguese trading post, it was a major center of the East African ivory trade in the 1800s.

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

  • proper noun Island region of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean.

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

  • noun an island in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa; part of the United Republic of Tanzania

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ultimately from Persian زنگبار (zangibâr), literally meaning “black-skinned coast”.

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Examples

  • ZANZIBAR: The Tanzanian spice islands of Zanzibar and Pemba were tense as delayed presidential and parliamentary voting took place in three constituencies.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1995

  • ZANZIBAR (Sapa-AP) - Members of the Zanzibar football team that won the East and Central African Challenge Cup will soon be able to tool around their island homeland on new motorcycles.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1995

  • ZANZIBAR - Oman and Saudi Arabia have granted the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar $16 million to improve airports.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1992

  • Just the name 'Zanzibar' conjures images of harem girls giggling behind gauzy veils, carved wooden doors opening to spice-filled rooms and other images from The Thousand and One Nights.

    FOXNews.com foxnewsonline@foxnews.com 2011

  • Just the name 'Zanzibar' conjures images of harem girls giggling behind gauzy veils, carved wooden doors opening to spice-filled rooms and other images from The Thousand and One Nights.

    FOXNews.com foxnewsonline@foxnews.com 2011

  • This is a project set up by a Zanzibari scientist who tries to help the women who live in Zanzibar grow little shell fish so they can either sell them or eat them, says Mitchell.

    Environmental Writer Blames Humans for Dying Oceans 2010

  • We here at The Atlantic grapple with all sorts of problems: matters glandular and jugular, animals crepuscular, extractions tonsillar, Mormons tabernacular, the politics of Simón Bolívar, diseases vascular, the arthritis of Renoir, Freddie Mercury in Zanzibar, my lost Wanderjahr, and polishing the samovar.

    What’s Your Problem? 2009

  • Stand on Zanzibar is in the Masterworks series, but Shockwave Rider resonates even more with where we are today.

    MIND MELD: The Forgotten Books of SF/F/H 2009

  • We here at The Atlantic grapple with all sorts of problems: matters glandular and jugular, animals crepuscular, extractions tonsillar, Mormons tabernacular, the politics of Simón Bolívar, diseases vascular, the arthritis of Renoir, Freddie Mercury in Zanzibar, my lost Wanderjahr, and polishing the samovar.

    What’s Your Problem? 2009

  • We here at The Atlantic grapple with all sorts of problems: matters glandular and jugular, animals crepuscular, extractions tonsillar, Mormons tabernacular, the politics of Simón Bolívar, diseases vascular, the arthritis of Renoir, Freddie Mercury in Zanzibar, my lost Wanderjahr, and polishing the samovar.

    What’s Your Problem? 2009

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