Definitions

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

  • A country of northern Africa on the Mediterranean Sea. Controlled at various times by Carthage, Rome, Arabia, and Spain, the area was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1911. It was subsequently seized by Italy and became an Italian colony during World War II, achieving independence as a kingdom in 1951. In 1969 Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi took power in a coup d'état, establishing a socialist dictatorship. Tripoli is the capital and the largest city.

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

  • proper noun A country in Northern Africa, between Egypt and Tunisia, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It also borders on Algeria, Chad, Niger, and Sudan. It is an Arabic-speaking country with over 97% of the population Sunni Moslem. The population in 1995 was about 5,248,000. The capital is Tripoli.

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

  • proper noun A country in North Africa

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

  • noun a military dictatorship in northern Africa on the Mediterranean; consists almost entirely of desert; a major exporter of petroleum

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Latin from Ancient Greek Λιβύη (Libuē). English since the 16th century.

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Examples

  • RITA HABEBE, TOUR OPERATOR MAGIC LIBYA: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) think (ph) about Libya and Tripoli itself has seen a bit of a boomtown.

    CNN Transcript Dec 14, 2002 2002

  • LIBYA: -- Moscow and Libya said in Nov. 2008 they were negotiating a deal for Russia to build nuclear research reactors for the North African state and supply fuel.

    unknown title 2009

  • LIBYA - Oct 9 - Libya Begins Payments For US Terror Victims.

    Liebermann All the Way 2009

  • 6: LIBYA - Mike O'Brien, minister for the Middle East, becomes the first British minister to visit Libya since 1984 when a policewoman was killed by a shot fired from the Libyan embassy in

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2002

  • With that background, you can well understand what the attitude of the Arabs in Libya is to their recent and retreating masters.

    The Empire at War in the Moslem Mediterranean 1941

  • U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the U.N. Security Council came together to condemn the violence in Libya, demand a stop to the killing, and adopt "biting" sanctions, targeting what she calls Libya's "unrepentant leadership."

    International Pressure Grows on Gadhafi to Resign 2011

  • The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, says the Security Council came together to condemn the violence in Libya, demand a stop to the killing, and adopt “biting” sanctions, targeting what she calls Libya's “unrepentant leadership.”

    Libya Diplomat: Fears Severity of Gadhafi Crackdown 2011

  • U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the U.N. Security Council came together to condemn the violence in Libya, demand a stop to the killing, and adopt "biting" sanctions, targeting what she calls Libya's "unrepentant leadership."

    International Pressure Grows on Gadhafi to Resign 2011

  • U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the U.N. Security Council came together to condemn the violence in Libya, demand a stop to the killing, and adopt "biting" sanctions, targeting what she calls Libya's "unrepentant leadership."

    International Pressure Grows on Gadhafi to Resign 2011

  • In Russia, which abstained from the UN vote, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said strikes on Khadafy's forces would amount to taking sides in what he called Libya's civil war, and thus breach the mandate that was initially envisaged as establishing a no-fly zone only to protect civilians.

    Boston.com Top Stories 2011

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