Memphis

¹ American  

[mem-fis] / ˈmɛm fɪs /

noun

1. a port in SW Tennessee, on the Mississippi.

2. a ruined city in Lower Egypt, on the Nile, S of Cairo: the ancient capital of Egypt.

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Memphis ² American  

[mem-fis] / ˈmɛm fɪs /

noun

1. a group of international designers and architects, formed in the 1980s and based in Milan, whose work is characterized by the use of bold colors, geometric shapes, and unconventional, often playful, designs.

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adjective

1. of or relating to this group or its style of design.

Memphis British  

/ ˈmɛmfɪs /

noun

1. a port in SW Tennessee, on the Mississippi River: the largest city in the state; a major cotton and timber market; Memphis State University (1909). Pop: 645 978 (2003 est)

2. a ruined city in N Egypt, the ancient centre of Lower Egypt, on the Nile: administrative and artistic centre, sacred to the worship of Ptah

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Memphis Cultural  

1. Largest city in Tennessee; located on the Mississippi River.

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Etymology

Origin of Memphis

The name was allegedly suggested to Ettore Sottsass, one of the group's founders, by the Bob Dylan song “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” on the evening of December 11, 1980

Example Sentences

Keith, a Memphis native, first found fame producing for rapper BlocBoy JB when they were teenagers.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 19, 2026

Memphis rapper BlocBoy JB, who has known Keith since the age of 14, posted on Instagram about his death, writing: "We talked everyday yeen tell me you was leaving."

From BBC • Jun. 18, 2026

There is still plenty of excess capacity at SpaceX unit xAI’s Colossus 1 facility in Memphis, Tenn., beyond what will be used to service the new Anthropic and Google contracts, according to Anderson.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 12, 2026

Located in Memphis, Tennessee, the facility had been underutilized by his xAI lab, the creator of the Grok chatbot.

From Barron's • Jun. 1, 2026

Nine thousand died in New Orleans in 1853, while Memphis saw 2,000 buried in its 1873 epidemic and another 5,000 in 1878.

From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy