Aral Sea

English

Etymology

From Kazakh арал (aral, island), referring to the more than 1,500 islands that once dotted its waters.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɑːɹəl siː/

Proper noun

Aral Sea

  1. A saline lake, straddling the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border, that was once large, but shrank to a quarter of its original size after the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which previously flowed into it, were diverted for irrigation purposes during the Soviet era.

Translations