MEANING
1. A boundary separating territories or states.
2. A developing outer zone of settlement or political control, especially in historical accounts.
3. A developing limit of knowledge or activity beyond which further discovery or advance is possible.
Use it for
Political edges; expansion; competing accounts of settlementIdentify whose authority ends and whose account of the place is being told.
Words that belong together
- international frontier
- frontier settlement
- disputed frontier
On the page
Merchants crossed the frontier only when both guards agreed the papers were valid.
The settlers called it a frontier; the families already there called it home.
A new customs post turned the quiet frontier into a bottleneck.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- frontier
Usage notes
Primary category: setting. The expansion sense often reflects a colonizer's viewpoint; supposedly unsettled places may already have inhabitants. Also used metaphorically for limits of knowledge. Plural: frontiers. No other inflection applies to this noun.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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