Calcutta
Americannoun
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former name of Kolkata (but sometimes still used).
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Also called Calcutta pool. (sometimes lowercase) a form of betting pool for a competition or tournament, as golf or auto racing, in which gamblers bid for participating contestants in an auction, the proceeds from which are put into a pool for distribution, according to a prearranged scale of percentages, to those who selected winners.
noun
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Calcutta is one of the largest cities in the world and suffers from poverty, overcrowding, and unemployment.
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.
In Calcutta, political changes led to the British government’s tea-tax strategy for bailing out the East India Co. and its unintended riling up of American tax protesters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Their route to deliver the plane in Wales included stops in Calcutta, Muscat and Cairo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
A gifted athlete, he became the first Indian to win the Macklin Sculls - a prestigious single sculling race - at the Calcutta Lake Club in 1938.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
Australia-born centre Tuipulotu believes it might have been someone else lifting the Calcutta Cup in Edinburgh had not Tandy brought him encouraged him to open up.
From Barron's ● Feb. 20, 2026
As Nat shouldered his way through the crowded wharves he heard talk of Russia and France and Spain, of Bombay and Calcutta.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
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.
