region
/ˈriːdʒ(ə)n
/noun
1An area, especially part of a country or the world having definable characteristics but not always fixed boundaries: the equatorial regions a major wine-producing region...
- As universities accommodated this changing clientele, boundaries weakened between regions, towns, classes, races, and the sexes.
- The global market is distinguished on the basis of major geographic regions, with a special breakout on China.
- Professor Byrne dealt with the question of how learning providers can play a binding role in uniting regions across county boundaries.
1.1An administrative district of a city or country: Lothian Region Saxony was divided into four large regions...
- The health boards are being replaced by a single national body, the Health Service Executive, which will have four administrative regions.
- This pressure prompted King Alexander I to split the traditional regions into nine administrative provinces.
- Several regions or cities with high levels of atmospheric pollution, such as Athens in Greece and parts of China, generally experienced low levels of asthma.
Synonyms
district, province, territory, division, area, section, sector, zone, belt, tract, stretch, expanse, terrain, part, quarter, locality, locale
informal parts
British informal patch
1.2 (the regions) British The parts of a country outside the capital or chief seat of government: the promotion of investment in the regions
1.3An area of activity or thought: his work takes needlework into the region of folk art...
- But most art history programs are not able to support specialization in all regions.
2A part of the body, especially around or near an organ: the lumbar region...
- This reduces the spaces in the thoracic and lumbar regions of the body, which creates undue pressure for the metabolic process and for the functioning of the organs of the body.
- Occasionally, a half-vertebra is found in the thoracic and lumbar regions and very rarely in cervical and sacral vertebrae.
- Anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of the thoracic or lumbar regions are indicated in patients with localized tenderness or a suspicious mechanism of injury.
Phrases
in the region of
Origin
Middle English: from Old French, from Latin regio(n-) 'direction, district', from regere 'to rule, direct'.