New Amsterdam

American  

[am-ster-dam] / ˈæm stərˌdæm /

noun

1. a former Dutch town on Manhattan Island: the capital of New Netherland; renamed New York by the British in 1664.

2. a city in NE Guyana, on the Berbice River.

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New Amsterdam British  

noun

1. the Dutch settlement established on Manhattan (1624–26); capital of New Netherland; captured by the English and renamed New York in 1664

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New Amsterdam Cultural  

1. A city founded by Dutch settlers in the seventeenth century on the present site of New York City.

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An early governor of the Dutch colony surrounding New Amsterdam bought Manhattan Island, the present center of New York City, from the Native Americans for twenty-four dollars' worth of jewelry.

Example Sentences

“The ‘Turk’ and the ‘whore,’” Mr. Mikhail tells us, were unpopular in New Amsterdam, being outspoken, litigious and—most unpalatably to their frugal neighbors—commercially successful, owning fertile land and a large grove of fruit trees.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

Under their agreement, the city of New Amsterdam would keep its mixed population and the Dutch features of capitalism and relative tolerance, but the settlement and its inhabitants would transfer to English rule.

From Salon • Mar. 15, 2025

“I started at the New Amsterdam Theatre, when the ‘Lion King’ was there.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2024

To protect New Amsterdam from attack, the Dutch forced enslaved Africans to build fortifications along what was then the city’s northeast boundary.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

And all of New York was called New Amsterdam, run by a man named Peter Stuyvesant.

From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson