GUINEA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Guinea mean? 

• GUINEA (noun)
  The noun GUINEA has 4 senses:

1. a former British gold coin worth 21 shillings

2. (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent

3. a republic in western Africa on the Atlantic; formerly a French colony; achieved independence from France in 1958

4. a west African bird having dark plumage mottled with white; native to Africa but raised for food in many parts of the world

  Familiarity information: GUINEA used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GUINEA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A former British gold coin worth 21 shillings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("guinea" is a kind of...):

coin (a flat metal piece (usually a disc) used as money)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dago; ginzo; greaseball; Guinea; wop

Hypernyms ("Guinea" is a kind of...):

Italian (a native or inhabitant of Italy)

Domain usage:

depreciation; derogation; disparagement (a communication that belittles somebody or something)

ethnic slur (a slur on someone's race or language)

argot; cant; jargon; lingo; patois; slang; vernacular (a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A republic in western Africa on the Atlantic; formerly a French colony; achieved independence from France in 1958

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

French Guinea; Guinea; Republic of Guinea

Instance hypernyms:

African country; African nation (any one of the countries occupying the African continent)

Meronyms (parts of "Guinea"):

capital of Guinea; Conakry; Konakri (a port and the capital of Guinea)

Niger; Niger River (an African river; flows into the South Atlantic)

Meronyms (members of "Guinea"):

Guinean (a native or inhabitant of Guinea)

Holonyms ("Guinea" is a part of...):

Africa (the second largest continent; located to the south of Europe and bordered to the west by the South Atlantic and to the east by the Indian Ocean)

Derivation:

Guinean (of or relating to or characteristic of Guinea or its inhabitants)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A west African bird having dark plumage mottled with white; native to Africa but raised for food in many parts of the world

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

guinea; guinea fowl; Numida meleagris

Hypernyms ("guinea" is a kind of...):

domestic fowl; fowl; poultry (a domesticated gallinaceous bird thought to be descended from the red jungle fowl)

Meronyms (parts of "guinea"):

guinea hen (flesh of a guinea fowl (especially of hens))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "guinea"):

guinea hen (female guinea fowl)

Holonyms ("guinea" is a member of...):

genus Numida; Numida (guinea fowl)

 Context examples 

The guineas, too, were about the scarcest, and it was with these only that my mother knew how to make her count.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

On her giving me her purse to pay the driver, I found that all the guineas were gone, and only the loose silver remained.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The skin of the Hartley Hairless guinea pig resembles many physical and physiological aspects of human skin and spontaneous formation of melanoma is common to this strain.

(Hartley Albino Hairless Guinea Pig, NCI Thesaurus)

C. paraputrificum is pathogenic in humans but not in rabbits or guinea pigs.

(Clostridium paraputrificum, NCI Thesaurus)

Blockade of CCR3 in vivo inhibits eosinophil recruitment in response to eotaxin in both the guinea pig and mouse.

(Allergy Chemokine Network Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The Hartley guinea pig is used as an animal model for studying human diseases and toxins harmful to man, as well as the development of serums and vaccines.

(Hartley Guinea Pig, NCI Thesaurus)

I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they would be to me.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Liberal as you are with your servants, one can hardly expect that they can buy twenty-guinea walking dresses for their ladies.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A country in the Pacific, comprising a group of islands in the North Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Philippines and northwest of Papua New Guinea.

(Palau, NCI Thesaurus)

It soon led to another; and Mrs. Bennet found, with amazement and horror, that her husband would not advance a guinea to buy clothes for his daughter.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)