Thailand

American  

[tahy-land, -luhnd] / ˈtaɪˌlænd, -lənd /

noun

1. Formerly Siam.  a kingdom in SE Asia: official name of Siam 1939–45 and since 1949. 198,242 sq. mi. (513,445 sq. km). Bangkok.

2. Also called Gulf of Siam.  Gulf of. an arm of the South China Sea, S of Thailand.

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Thailand British  

/ ˈtaɪˌlænd /

noun

1. Former name (until 1939 and 1945–49): Siam.  a kingdom in SE Asia, on the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand: united as a kingdom in 1350 and became a major SE Asian power; consists chiefly of a central plain around the Chao Phraya river system, mountains rising over 2400 m (8000 ft) in the northwest, and rainforest the length of the S peninsula. Parts of the SW coast suffered badly in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. Official language: Thai. Official religion: (Hinayana) Buddhist. Currency: baht. Capital: Bangkok. Pop: 67 448 120 (2013 est). Area: 513 998 sq km (198 455 sq miles)

2. Former name: Gulf of Siam.  an arm of the South China Sea between the Malay Peninsula and Indochina

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Thailand Cultural  

1. Constitutional monarchy in southern Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma to the west and northwest, Laos to the north and east, Cambodia to the southeast, and the Gulf of Siam (an arm of the Pacific Ocean) and Malaysia to the south. Its capital and largest city is Bangkok.

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Discover More

Strongly supported the United States during the Vietnam War, Thailand was the site of American air bases until 1976, when relations with the United States deteriorated.

During the early 1990s, its economy became one of the strongest in Asia, but it experienced a sharp downturn in the mid-1990s.

Thailand was formerly called Siam.

Example Sentences

The past 25 years in Thailand could reasonably be called "the Thaksin era".

From BBC • May 10, 2026

A company factory in Thailand, where labor is roughly a quarter the cost of its U.S. equivalent, started making tape measures in the 1990s.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026

But there is one strain of hantavirus — known as the Andes virus — that can be transmitted from human to human, and has been transmitted in Thailand and Argentina.

From Los Angeles Times • May 4, 2026

Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra told AFP "635 Thai nationals involved in illegal online business operations and transnational criminal networks were deported to Thailand" through a border checkpoint on Thursday.

From Barron's • Apr. 30, 2026

There’d been nothing in the newspapers about a coup in Thailand; this was a genuine scoop.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis