Athens

American  

[ath-inz] / ˈæθ ɪnz /

noun

1. Greek Athenai.  a city in and the capital of Greece, in the southeastern part.

2. Greater Athens, a metropolitan area comprising the city of Athens, Piraeus, and several residential suburbs.

3. a city in northern Georgia.

4. a city in southern Ohio.

5. a town in northern Alabama.

6. a town in southern Tennessee.

7. a town in eastern Texas.

8. any city that is compared to Athens, especially as a cultural center.

   the Athens of the Midwest.

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Athens British  

/ ˈæθɪnz /

noun

1. Greek name: Athinai.   Athina.  the capital of Greece, in the southeast near the Saronic Gulf: became capital after independence in 1834; ancient city-state, most powerful in the 5th century _bc ; contains the hill citadel of the Acropolis. Pop: 3 238 000 (2005 est)

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Athens ¹ Cultural  

1. Capital of Greece in east-central Greece on the plain of Attica, overlooking an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. Named after its patron goddess, Athena, Athens is Greece's largest city and its cultural, administrative, and economic center.

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Athens ² Cultural  

1. A leading city of ancient Greece, famous for its learning, culture, and democratic institutions. The political power of Athens was sometimes quite limited, however, especially after its defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. Pericles was a noted ruler of Athens. (See also under “World Geography.”)

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Discover More

As the cultural center of Greece, ancient Athens was home to influential writers and thinkers such as Aristophanes, Euripides, Socrates, and Plato.

Its principal landmark is the Acropolis, on which stands the remains of the Parthenon and other buildings.

In the fifth century b.c., Athens was one of the world's most powerful and highly civilized cities (see also under “World History to 1550”).

Example Sentences

Mr. Stuttard, an accomplished theater director, departs from this scholarship by staging these events as a Greek tragedy, where the hero—in this case, Pericles’ Athens itself—is brought low by divine forces offended by impiety.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

After its triumph in war with Persia, Athens under Pericles began to treat its allies as subordinates to be exploited.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

A man has died near Athens as a storm hits parts of Greece with gale-force winds and flooding, while a Saharan dust storm enveloped the island of Crete.

From BBC • Apr. 2, 2026

In the last days of Scotland's epic bid for automatic World Cup qualification things seemed to take a potentially fatal twist in Piraeus, the main seaport of Athens.

From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026

Harrison, at one point, was standing next to a man named George Despinis, the head of the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell