Venezuela is a country on the northern coast of South America, with Colombia to its west and Brazil to its south, facing the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is Caracas. In English writing it comes up for a few predictable reasons: it holds some of the largest oil reserves in the world, so it appears constantly in news about oil prices; it has been through a long and severe economic and political crisis, with very high inflation and millions of people leaving the country; and it has a strong reputation in beauty pageants and in baseball.

A few practical points about the word. The stress falls on the fourth syllable — ven-eh-ZWAY-la — and the 'zu' is said like 'zwei' rather than 'zoo'; that is the mistake I hear most often. It takes no 'the' (you say 'in Venezuela', not 'in the Venezuela'), and like most country names it is capitalised. A person or thing from there is 'Venezuelan'. The main language is Spanish.

Also worth knowing: because of the crisis, you will often meet the word inside phrases about migration — 'Venezuelan migrants', 'the Venezuelan diaspora'. If you read English news at all, this is one of those country names that keeps appearing, so it is worth being able to say it comfortably.