sphere of influence

English

Etymology

In reference to Anglo-German colonial rivalry in Africa. First use appears c. 1885.

Noun

sphere of influence (plural spheres of influence)

1. (politics) A spatial region over which a state has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity.
   • 2022 February 23, Madeleine Albright, “Putin Is Making a Historic Mistake”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     […] it does not mean that the major powers have a right to chop the globe into spheres of influence as colonial empires did centuries ago.

2. (figurative, by extension) A concept division over which a person, organization, etc. exerts control.

Translations

area influenced by something

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: ազդեցության ոլորտ (hy) (azdecʻutʻyan olort)
• Bashkir: даирә (dairə)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 勢力範圍 / 势力范围 (shìli fànwéi)

• Dutch: invloedssfeer (nl) m, jurisdictie (nl) f
• Estonian: mõjupiirkond
• Finnish: vaikutuspiiri
• French: sphère d'influence (fr) f
• Galician: esfera de influencia f
• German: Einflussbereich (de) m, Einflussphäre f
• Greek: σφαίρα επιρροής f (sfaíra epirroḯs)
• Hindi: प्रभाव क्षेत्र (prabhāv kṣetra)
• Italian: sfera di influenza f
• Japanese: 勢力圏 (せいりょくけん, seiryokuken)
• Kazakh: ықпал аясы (yqpal aäsy)
• Korean: 세력권 (seryeokgwon), 세력 범위 (seryeok beomwi)
• Mongolian: нөлөөний хүрээ (nölöönii xüree)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: innflytelsessfære m

• Polish: strefa wpływów f
• Portuguese: esfera de influência f
• Romanian: sferă de influență (ro) f
• Russian: сфе́ра влия́ния f (sféra vlijánija)
• Spanish: esfera de influencia f
• Swedish: intressesfär (sv), inflytelsesfär c
• Turkish: etki alanı
• Ukrainian: сфера впливу f (sfera vplyvu)
• Uyghur: تەسىر دائىرىسى (tesir da'irisi)
• Vietnamese: phạm vi ảnh hưởng

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sphere”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 18 November 2021.

Further reading

• sphere of influence on Wikipedia.Wikipedia