Bengal
Americannoun
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a former province in northeastern India, now divided between India and Bangladesh.
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Bay of Bengal, a part of the Indian Ocean between India and Myanmar (Burma).
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a raw silk from Bengal.
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a fabric, especially one made of silk and hair.
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a fabric, similar to muslin, with printed stripes.
noun
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a former province of NE India, in the great deltas of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers: in 1947 divided into West Bengal (belonging to India) and East Bengal (Bangladesh)
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a wide arm of the Indian Ocean, between India and Myanmar
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a breed of medium-large cat with a spotted or marbled coat
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.
An estimated three million people died in eastern India in the Bengal famine, but the nature of the wartime British prime minister's role in it has long been subject to academic dispute.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
It says it "houses over 100 fascinating animals" including crocodiles, African lions and a Bengal tiger.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
An intramural tournament known as the Bengal Bouts was formed and decades later ElAttrache became a champion, winning the 185-pound division in 1978.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
As the smooth highway north of Seville stretched into the vastness of pastoral Extremadura, the chances of finding a lynx, which remains rarer than the snow leopard or the Bengal tiger, felt impossibly small.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
The cages were empty—save one: Mahisha, our Bengal tiger patriarch, a lanky, hulking beast of 550 pounds, had been detained.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
