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congo

noun

Simple meaning

A republic in central Africa.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kahnggoh

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɑŋɡoʊ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A republic in central Africa; achieved independence from Belgium in 1960

  2. A major African river (one of the world's longest); flows through Congo into the South Atlantic

  3. A major river in Central Africa which flows for about 4,380 km (2,720 miles) to the Atlantic Ocean in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at times forming the border with the Republic of the Congo and Angola.

  4. Black tea grown in China

  5. Democratic Republic of the Congo (a country in Central Africa, larger and to the east of the Republic of the Congo; official name: Democratic Republic of the Congo; capital: Kinshasa).

  6. Republic of the Congo (a country in Central Africa, smaller and to the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; official name: Republic of the Congo; capital: Brazzaville).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Democratic / republic

belgian congoeastern congo

Other combinations

congo basincongo statelower congoupper congocongo crisiscongo beige

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • congo eelnounCompound term

    Aquatic eel-shaped salamander having two pairs of very small feet.

  • congo francnounCompound term

    The basic unit of money in the Congo.

  • congo gumnounCompound term

    Copal found usually as a fossil.

  • congo peafowlnounCompound term

    Both sexes are brightly colored.

  • congo rednounCompound term

    A red-brown azo dye especially as a chemical pH indicator (congo red is red in basic and blue in acidic solutions).

  • congo rivernounCompound term

    A major African river (one of the world's longest).

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • congolesenounRelated term

    A native or inhabitant of the Republic of the Congo.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: republic in central Africa

french congoRarecongo river

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.