Bombay

American  

[bom-bey] / bɒmˈbeɪ /

noun

1. Mumbai.

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

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Bombay British  

/ bɒmˈbeɪ /

noun

1. the former English name of Mumbai

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

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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

According to Prakash there are a few key moments when Bombay really changed - in the 1830s and 40s, when reclamations and bunds joined the seven separate islets into a single island city.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

At IIT Bombay - one of India's top technology institutes that was once a near-guaranteed passport to prosperity - fresh graduates are leaving with lower salaries than their predecessors.

From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026

Fearful of a future shackled to the home, Charu leaves at 16 to find her way in Bombay, the first of this pilgrim soul’s reinventions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

Yes, Gulf statelets like Aden were overseen by the Bombay presidency, and yes, the India rupee was, for the most part, their legal tender.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

The following evening they board a Pan Am flight to London, where after a five-hour layover they will board a second flight to Calcutta, via Tehran and Bombay.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri