Republic of Zaire, a former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
official name within the Democratic Republic of the Congo of the Congo River (the term Congo River is more widely used elsewhere).
the former name (1971–97) of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(formerly) the Zaïrian name (1971–97) for the (River) Congo
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Existing Ebola vaccines, developed between 2018 and 2019, are only effective against the Zaire strain, which caused previous major outbreaks.
From Barron's • Jun. 24, 2026
Vaccines targeting Zaire ebolavirus have proven highly effective, and two antiviral treatments have reduced mortality rates from 50% to 35%.
From Science Daily • Jun. 22, 2026
Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, meanwhile, are back in the World Cup for the first time since 1974 — for Congo, it’s been so long the country was known as Zaire then.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
The rare Bundibugyo strain circulating in Congo wasn’t reliably identified by most available Ebola tests, which were designed to detect the more common Zaire and Sudan strains.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 3, 2026
We didn’t know if the agent in the monkey house was, in fact, Ebola Zaire or if it was something else, some new strain of Ebola.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
