Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A landlocked country of western Africa. It was a French protectorate from 1896 until 1960, when it gained its independence. The name of the country was officially changed in 1984. Ouagadougou is the capital and the largest city.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A country in Western Africa (formerly Upper Volta). Official name: Burkina Faso.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a desperately poor landlocked country in western Africa; was formerly Upper Volta under French rule but gained independence in 1960

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

More burkina ("honest") + Dioula faso ("father's house"), coined by Thomas Sankara.

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