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Bombay

American  
[bom-bey] / bɒmˈbeɪ /

noun

  1. Mumbai.

  2. a former state in W India: divided in 1960 into the Gujarat and Maharashtra states.

Bombay British  
/ bɒmˈbeɪ /

noun

  1. the former English name of Mumbai

  2. a breed of black short-haired medium-sized cat

"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
Bombay Cultural  

  1. City in western India just off the coast of the Arabian Sea. It is now officially called Mumbai.

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India's second-largest city, after Calcutta, Bombay is the only natural deep-water harbor in western India.

Example Sentences

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From Parsi philanthropists and Maharashtrian nobility to mill workers and marginalised migrant settlers, the photographs showcase the city's many faces that stake a claim to the making of Bombay.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

The crowded, corrupt Bombay of the mid-1990s is home to the Vakeels.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Ramamurthy and the Bombay Stock Exchange are not alone.

From BBC • Mar. 2, 2026

If you were born in what once was Bombay, but raised a family in L.A., happy new year.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 27, 2025

Then she dictated a letter to Annamma Chandy’s brother-in-law who was the Regional Manager of Padma Pickles in Bombay.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

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.