Oblast
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A region or province in Slavic or Slavic-influenced countries.
"The territorial subdivision below the level of the union republic — or at least below the level of the larger union republics — is that of the oblast, the krai, or the autonomous republic. In 1977 there were 120 oblasts, 6 krais, and 20 autonomous republics, and they corresponded roughly to the American state in size."
Example
More examples"Yekaterinburg used to be named Sverdlovsk, after the communist revolutionary, Yakov Sverdlov. The oblast that it is in is still called "Sverdlovsk Oblast"."
Etymology
From a Slavic language, probably Russian о́бласть (óblastʹ, “region, province”), borrowed from Old Church Slavonic область (oblastĭ), from Proto-Slavic *obolstь, from earlier *obvolstь, *obvoldtь, a compound of *o(b)- (“over”) + *volstь (“rule, power, authority”), thus originally probably meaning "a region ruled over". Compare Proto-Slavic *obvoldati (“to rule”).
Related phrases
More for "oblast"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.