Word.ws English Dictionary

near abroad

near abroad noun: the other countries and political regions which are in the vicinity of a country or political region.

Noun

the near abroad (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural) The other countries and political regions which are in the vicinity of a country or political region.
    • In his first term, George W. Bush was willing to give Putin a free hand in what Russia calls the near abroad, the states that spun off from the broken Soviet Union.2004 December 6, Paul Quinn-Judge, Yuri Zarakhovich, “The Orange Revolution”, in Time, page 20
    • North Africa and the Middle East are, after all, Europe's near-abroad.2011 May 18, Timothy Garton Ash, “Obama can now define the third great project of Euro-Atlantic partnership”, in The Guardian, retrieved 09 Jan 2013

Antonyms of near abroad

  • far abroad

Forms of near abroad

alternative formnear-abroad

Origin of near abroad

Calque of Russian ближнее зарубе́жье (bližneje zarubéžʹje), from ближний (bližnij, “near”) and зарубе́жье (zarubéžʹje, “abroad”).

Questions about near abroad

What does near abroad mean?
Near abroad means the other countries and political regions which are in the vicinity of a country or political region.
What part of speech is near abroad?
Near abroad is a noun.

Words near near abroad in the dictionary

  1. neaps
  2. neaptide
  3. neaptides
  4. neapy
  5. near
  6. near abroad
  7. near and dear
  8. near antonym
  9. near antonyms
  10. near as a toucher
  11. near as dammit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: near abroad (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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