northern alliance
n · noun
Simple meaning
The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
nawrthernuhlyuhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈnɔɹðɚnəlaɪəns
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
n
The Northern Alliance (E'tilāf Šumāl or Ettehād Šumāl), officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (Jabha-ye Muttahid-e Islāmī-ye Millī barāye Najāt-e Afğānistān), was a military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The Northern Alliance, officially the Northern Alliance – Burma (abbreviated NA-B), is a military coalition in Myanmar composed of four ethnic insurgent groups: the Arakan Army, the Kachin Independence Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army.
noun
A multiethnic alliance in Afghanistan who practice a moderate form of Islam and are united in their opposition to the Taliban
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The Northern Alliance (E'tilāf Šumāl or Ettehād Šumāl), officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan (Jabha-ye Muttahid-e Islāmī-ye Millī barāye Najāt-e Afğānistān), was a military alliance of groups that operated between early 1992 and 2001 following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Used this way, northern alliance is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.