Gibraltar
pronunciation
How to pronounce Gibraltar in British English:
UK [dʒiˈbrɔ:ltə]
How to pronounce Gibraltar in American English:
US [dʒəˈbrɔltɚ]
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- Noun:
- location of a colony of the United Kingdom on a limestone promontory at the southern tip of Spain; strategically important because it can control the entrance of ships into the Mediterranean; one of the Pillars of Hercules
Word Origin
- Gibraltar
- 1590s, ancient Calpe, captured 710 C.E. by Saracen leader Tariq, renamed Jebel el Tarik "the Mountain of Tarik," hence the English name. A British possession since 1704. Figurative of impregnability by 1856. Formerly also the name of a kind of rock-candy (1831).
Example
- 1. The new approach reflects the reality of life in and around gibraltar .
- 2. Gibraltar , where most british online gambling firms pay tax , takes just 1 % of the pot .
- 3. A three-year-old agreement allows britain , spain and gibraltar to discuss mutual problems without backing away from their views on sovereignty .
- 4. However , evolutionary biologist clive finlayson at the gibraltar museum and his colleagues recently found that clusters of neanderthals might have lasted until as late as 24000 years ago .
- 5. A colonial-era galleon discovered in the atlantic in 2007 with 17 tons of silver and gold coins , which were flown out of gibraltar to florida .