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Tuvalu

tu·valu

UK/ˌtuːvəˈluː/ US/tuːˈvɑː.luː/ uncommon

noun

1.

a small island republic on the Tuvalu islands; formerly part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands until it withdrew in 1975 and became independent of the United Kingdom in 1978

2.

a group of coral islands in Micronesia southwest of Hawaii

Synonyms

Origin

From Tuvaluan Tuuvalu (literally “eight standing together”) in reference to the eight inhabited islands of Tuvalu, although Tuvalu consists of nine islands. The ninth island, Niulakita, was inhabited in 1949. Compare to Proto-Austronesian *walu (“eight”).

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.