Bonn

American  

[bon, bawn] / bɒn, bɔn /

noun

1. a city in W Germany, on the Rhine: seat of the government; former capital of West Germany.

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Bonn British  

/ bɒn, bɔn /

noun

1. a city in W Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia on the Rhine: the former capital (1949–90) of West Germany; university (1786). Pop: 311 052 (2003 est)

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Bonn Cultural  

1. Former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany and still home to most of the German government's bureaucracy, located in the western part of Germany, on the Rhine River.

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Discover More

The Constitution for West Germany was drafted in Bonn after World War II. Bonn became West Germany's capital in 1949 and reunified Germany's capital in 1990, but it has since lost that distinction to Berlin.

Example Sentences

Researchers at the University of Bonn recently examined these lasting impacts using data from the "Asian financial crisis" of the late 1990s.

From Science Daily • Mar. 15, 2026

"This process works on consensus, and consensus means if someone objected to our bid, it would go to Bonn."

From BBC • Nov. 19, 2025

If neither country was willing to compromise then the meeting would have been held in the German city of Bonn, the headquarters of the UN's climate body.

From BBC • Nov. 19, 2025

In my junior year, I spent a semester in Bonn, Germany, and returned home to California a different person.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 7, 2025

That Decem­ber, Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Hazaras gathered in Bonn and, under the watchful eye of the UN, began the process that might someday end over twenty years of unhappiness in their watan.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini