Demarcation
/ˌdɛm.ɑːˈkeɪ.ʃən/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe act of marking off a boundary or setting a limit, notably by belligerents signing a treaty or ceasefire.
nounA limit thus fixed, in full demarcation line.
Sentence Examples
The International Date Line serves as the "line of demarcation" between two consecutive calendar dates.
My strife for learning archaic words has no demarcation.
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ between the two countries was established by a treaty in 1920.
Word Origin & History
First recorded c.1752, from Spanish línea de demarcación and/or Portuguese linha de demarcação, the demarcation line laid down by the Pope on May 4, 1493, dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal on a line 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. Both derive from demarcar, from de- + marcar (“to mark”), from Italian marcare, from the same Germanic root as march.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"About sunset, he was leaning on the remains of an old wall, which had once probably surrounded a Roman encampment, and now served as a line of demarcation between two villages, as jealous of each other's claims as near neighbours usually are."
— 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 48–49:
"In the sea there is no demarcation between the hunter and the hunted, as there is on the African plains."
— 1983, Richard Ellis, The Book of Sharks, Knopf, →ISBN, page 7:
"Certainly no clear line of demarcation has as yet been drawn between species and sub-species—that is, the forms which in the opinion of some naturalists come very near to, but do not quite arrive at the rank of species; or, again, between sub-species and well-marked varieties, or between lesser varieties and individual differences. These differences blend into each other in an insensible series; and a series impresses the mind with the idea of an actual passage."
— 1859, Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ between the two countries was established by a treaty in 1920.