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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.


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)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.


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.”)


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

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The world number four has not played a tour match since he defeated Lorenzo Musetti in the Athens final in early November.

From Barron's

Mr. Karagiannis is a disaster prevention expert at the Academy of Athens.

From The Wall Street Journal

Athens' main airport is among the worst affected, while Thessaloniki airport has closed entirely.

From BBC

Led by researchers at the National Observatory of Athens, the study was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

From Science Daily

Myrmekion dates back to the 6th Century BC, when the Ancient Greeks settled in Crimea as democracy was being born in Athens.

From BBC