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Colombia

American  
[kuh-luhm-bee-uh, kaw-lawm-byah] / kəˈlʌm bi ə, kɔˈlɔm bjɑ /

noun

  1. a republic in northwestern South America. 439,828 sq. mi. (1,139,155 sq. km). Bogotá.


Colombia British  
/ kəˈlɒmbɪə /

noun

  1. a republic in NW South America: inhabited by Chibchas and other Indians before Spanish colonization in the 16th century; independence won by Bolívar in 1819; became the Republic of Colombia in 1886; violence and unrest have been endemic since the 1970s. It consists chiefly of a hot swampy coastal plain, separated by ranges of the Andes from the pampas and the equatorial forests of the Amazon basin in the east. Language: Spanish. Religion: Roman Catholic majority. Currency: peso. Capital: Bogotá. Pop: 45 745 783 (2013 est). Area: 1 138 908 sq km (439 735 sq miles)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Colombia Cultural  
  1. Republic in northwestern South America, bordered by Panama to the northwest, Venezuela to the northeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south, and Brazil to the southeast. Its capital and largest city is Bogotá.


Discover More

Trafficking of marijuana and cocaine remains a problem in Colombia. With support from the United States, the Colombian government has attacked drug traffickers, but the country continues to be torn by civil war between left-wing and right-wing factions.

Its major legal crop is coffee.

Other Word Forms

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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My grandfather was a coffee farmer in Pereira, Colombia.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

MRO performs aircraft maintenance and modifications at facilities in the U.S., as well as in Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia, where costs can be significantly lower.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

She says she would expand intelligence-sharing with Washington, work with U.S. agencies and the Coast Guard against drug trafficking and coordinate with Colombia to dismantle criminal groups on the border.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Colombia has again topped the list of countries with the highest number of killings of land and environmental activists, according to an annual report by campaign group Global Witness, external.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

“The OAS has imposed sanctions! Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela,” Elsa counted them off with her fingers, “even the gringos. They’ve all broken relations!”

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

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