Poland
Americannoun
noun
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In 1952, Poland became a people's republic on the Soviet model.
During World War II, about six million Poles, including three million Jews (see also Jews), died from German massacres, starvation, and execution in concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
Poland joined NATO in 1999.
Poland was a great power from the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries, but in the eighteenth century it was partitioned three times among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. It was again recognized as an independent state in 1919.
In 1989, Solidarity-backed candidates swept to victory in free elections, but Solidarity subsequently declined sharply as a political force.
The Solidarity movement, which demanded greater worker control in Poland, emerged in the early 1980s as one of the first signs of popular discontent with single-party rule and the communist economic system.
The invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 precipitated World War II.
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.
When Dominika Mikitiuk, a veterinarian visiting from eastern Poland, saw the bridge and heard the $314 million price tag, the 30-year-old had one question: “Just for that?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Uri Shulevitz’s tale of his family’s arduous journey out of Poland to escape the Nazis during World War II has every appearance of being solely for children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
The vessel sailed through the Arctic's Northern Sea Route before making port calls at Felixstowe in Britain, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdansk in Poland, and returning via the same route.
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
Musk, worth a cool $1 trillion according to Forbes, would slot in at number 23 — just behind Poland, at $1.04 trillion, and ahead of Taiwan, at $920 billion.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026
There’s Poland, with a woman who looks like Mrs. Kluck’s not-so-evil twin sister standing beside it, arms crossed over her chest.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.