Constantinople

American  

[kon-stan-tn-oh-puhl] / ˌkɒn stæn tnˈoʊ pəl /

noun

1. former name of Istanbul.

---

Constantinople British  

/ ˌkɒnstæntɪˈnəʊpəl /

noun

1. the former name (330–1926) of Istanbul

---

Constantinople Cultural  

1. A city founded by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great as capital of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Constantine ruled over both parts of the empire from Constantinople, which was later capital of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople was conquered by Turkish forces in the fifteenth century.

---

Discover More

Today, under the name of Istanbul, Constantinople is the largest city in Turkey.

Example Sentences

The Gallipoli campaign, part of a British-led effort to defeat the Ottoman Empire, aimed to secure a naval route through the Dardanelles from the Mediterranean Sea to Constantinople, now Istanbul, in Turkey.

From BBC • Apr. 25, 2026

A priest traces the endless conflict of Russia and the West to the Crusaders’ sack of Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, in 1204.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026

"All neuropsychiatric disorders show fluctuations in symptom severity over hormonal states, suggesting that a better understanding of how hormones influence neural circuits might reveal what causes these diseases," notes Constantinople.

From Science Daily • Nov. 21, 2025

Between about 1455 and the end of 1500, roughly 30,000 different editions of printed books appeared, amounting to millions of copies, all over western Europe, and as far as Constantinople.

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2024

After the theater had closed, he could pass along Constantinople Street to see whether his mother had come home.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole