Synonyms

Bethlehem

American

[beth-li-hem, -lee-uhm] / ˈbɛθ lɪˌhɛm, -li əm /

noun

a town in NW Jordan, near Jerusalem; occupied by Israel since 1967: birthplace of Jesus and David.
a city in E Pennsylvania.

Bethlehem British

/ ˈbɛθlɪˌhɛm, -lɪəm /

noun

a town in the West Bank, near Jerusalem: birthplace of Jesus and early home of King David

"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

Bethlehem Cultural

The village near Jerusalem (see also Jerusalem) where Jesus was born. (See Nativity.)

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.

See Examples For:

Bethlehem

Alas, Bethlehem Steel eventually went bankrupt and left Baltimore.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026

Bethlehem sits at the heart of the Lehigh Valley, a former US stronghold of heavy industry.

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026

Reifel was sworn into the Bethlehem Police Department in August 2025, according to a post on the department's social media.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

His father, who helped manage the new Burns Harbor plant for Bethlehem Steel, chose to move his family half an hour northeast along the dunes rather than west where more Black Midwesterners lived.

From Slate ● May 7, 2026

We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023