Tarawa

Ta·ra·wa  (t-räw, tr-wä, tärä-)

The capital of Kiribati, an island group of the western Pacific Ocean, formerly known as the Gilbert Islands. It was occupied by the Japanese in 1942 and retaken by U.S. Marines after a hard-fought battle in November 1943.

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Tarawa [təˈrɑːwə]

n

(Placename) an atoll in Kiribati, occupying a chain of islets surrounding a lagoon in the W central Pacific: the capital of Kiribati, Bairiki, is on this atoll. Pop.: 32 354 (1995)

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	Tarawa - national capital of Kiribati         Bairiki Kiribati, Republic of Kiribati - an island republic in the west central Pacific just to the south of the equator
	2.	Tarawa - battles in World War II in the Pacific (November 1943); United States Marines took the islands from the Japanese after bitter fighting Makin, Tarawa-Makin Second World War, World War 2, World War II - a war between the Allies (Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, USSR, Yugoslavia) and the Axis (Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Rumania, Slovakia, Thailand) from 1939 to 1945 Gilbert Islands - a group of islands in Micronesia to the southwest of Hawaii; formerly part of the British colony of Gilbert and Ellice Islands until it became part of the Republic of Kiribati in 1979