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Yu·go·sla·vi·a (y′gō-slävē-ə)
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A former country of southeast Europe bordering on the Adriatic Sea. It was formed in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. Under the leadership of Marshal Tito, the country became a Communist-led regime after World War II. After Tito's death in 1980, economic problems and ethnic tensions grew. Communist party control ended in 1990, and four of the six constituent republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and North Macedonia) declared independence in 1991. Serbia and Montenegro, the remaining states, abandoned the name Yugoslavia in 2003 and dissolved the federation entirely in 2006.
Yugo·slav′, Yu′go·slavi·an adj.& n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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