fron ‧ tier /ˈfrʌntɪə $ frʌnˈtɪr/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: French ; Origin: frontière , from front ; ⇨ ↑ front 1 ]
1 . [countable] especially British English the border of a country
frontier between/with
Lille is close to the frontier between France and Belgium.
on/at the frontier
Troops established a road block on the frontier.
frontier town/area/post etc (=a town etc on a frontier)
2 . the frontier an area where people have never lived before, that not much is known about, especially in the western US before the 20th century:
a novel about a family’s struggle on the American frontier
space, the final frontier
3 . the frontiers of knowledge/physics etc the limits of what is known about something
push back the frontiers (=discover new things)
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THESAURUS
▪ border the official line that separates two countries, or the area close to this line:
The town lies on the border between Chile and Argentina.
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Strasbourg is very close to the German border.
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border guards
▪ frontier especially British English the border:
They crossed the Libyan frontier into Egypt.
▪ line the official line that separates states and counties in the US:
His family lived across the state line in West Virginia.
▪ boundary the line that marks the edge of an area of land that someone owns, or one of the parts of a country:
The fence marks the boundary between the two properties.
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The Mississippi River forms the boundary between Tennessee and Arkansas.
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A road runs along the western boundary of the site.