CZECH

Czech is an adjective and noun that can refer to the Czech people, the Czech language, or anything related to Czechia, a landlocked country in Central Europe known formally as the Czech Republic.

Czech people are a West Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with Czechia, especially Bohemia in the western part and Moravia in the east. The population of the Czech Republic is about 10.5 million; there are sizable Czech communities in neighboring Slovakia, as well as in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Czech is a West Slavic language spoken by the vast majority of the population. It uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics and has standard varieties based on the Prague dialect. It is closely related to Slovak and shares mutual intelligibility to varying degrees.

Czechia's official name is Czech Republic; the country is in Central Europe, bordered by Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria. The capital and largest city is Prague. It is a constitutional parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union and NATO. The economy is highly developed, with strong automotive, engineering, and services sectors; the currency is the Czech koruna, and the euro has not been adopted.

Historically, the Czech lands were part of the Kingdom of Bohemia, later the Habsburg Monarchy, then Czechoslovakia after 1918. After World War II and the communist era, Czechoslovakia peacefully split in 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.