Korea

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Korea

/kəˈɹi.ə/ US
[kʰəˈɹi.ə] US
/kəˈɹiːə/ UK
[kʰəˈɹiːə] UK
/kəˈɹɪjə/ British, Southern, Standard
[kʰəˈɹɪjə] British, Southern, Standard
/kəˈɾi.ə/ Scotland
[kʰəˈɾi.ə] Scotland
/kəˈɾiːə/ Wales
[kʰəˈɾiːə] Wales
/koˈɹiːɐ/ Philippines
[koˈɹiːɐ] Philippines

Sounds like chorea (general, except South Asia), career (in fast non-rhotic speech) · Rhymes with -iːə

Where it comes from

First attested as Core in the 1598 English translation of the 1596 Itinerario of Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, from the original Dutch Core, itself from Portuguese according to van Linschoten's account. The spelling Corea was more common in Early Modern English.

Ultimately a sixteenth-century borrowing by Europeans from some variety of Chinese. Compare Mandarin 高麗 /高丽 (Gāolí) but especially Hokkien 高麗 /高丽 (Ko-lê), which matches the Dutch-Portuguese vowels exactly.

These are Chinese pronunciations of Sino-Korean 고려(高麗) (Goryeo), Korea's official name between 918 and 1394 and still used by Chinese people to refer to the country for centuries thereafter; this itself being a shortening of 高句麗 (“Goguryeo”), an ancient Korean kingdom in the first millennium. Doublet of Goryeo, directly from Korean.

Some Korean authors claim an Arabic intermediary instead, but this is impossible because the actual medieval Arabic word for Korea was a variant of السيلى (al-sīlā, see also Silla).

proper noun Koreas · Corea

countable, uncountable A geographic region in East Asia, consisting of two countries, commonly known as South Korea and North Korea; formerly a single country. After the death of the empreſs Papûſha he had been baniſhed into Korea, from whence he was removed to Quey-lin Fû, the capital of Quang-ſi.
countable, informal, uncountable South Korea: A country in East Asia, comprising the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.
countable, rare, uncountable North Korea: A country in East Asia, whose territory consists of the northern part of Korea.
countable, uncountable A peninsula in East Asia, containing the countries of North Korea and South Korea; in full, Korean Peninsula.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: korean peninsula, choson, manchuria, korean, seoul, taiwan, dprk, syria, pyongyang, syrian, macedonia, czech, japan, mainland, oriental, southern

Translations

Every language

name ancient country or both Koreas as a whole

Español	Corea
한국어	우리나라 urinara
日本語	朝鮮 Chōsen, 高麗 Kōrai, 韓国 Kankoku, コリア Koria
中文	高麗 /高丽 Gāolí, 朝鮮 /朝鲜 Cháoxiǎn, Cháoxiān, Zhāoxiān, 韓國 /韩国 Hánguó
हिन्दी	कोरिया koriyā
Kiswahili	Korea
Português	Coreia
Français	Corée
Deutsch	Korea
Italiano	Corea
Ελληνικά	Κορέα Koréa
Română	Coreea
Русский	Коре́я Koréja
Tiếng Việt	Cao Ly, Cao Lệ, Triều Tiên, Hàn Quốc
العربية	كُورْيَا kūryā, كُورِيَا kūriyā
עברית	קוֹרֵיאָה koria

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MLA

"Korea." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/korea. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

Korea. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/korea

Chicago

"Korea." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/korea.

BibTeX

@misc{korea_2026,
  title = {Korea},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/korea},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}