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Nagasaki

American  
[nah-guh-sah-kee, nag-uh-sak-ee, nah-gah-sah-kee] / ˌnɑ gəˈsɑ ki, ˌnæg əˈsæk i, ˈnɑ gɑˈsɑ ki /

noun

  1. a seaport on W Kyushu, in SW Japan: second military use of the atomic bomb August 9, 1945.


Nagasaki British  
/ ˌnɑːɡəˈsɑːkɪ /

noun

  1. a port in SW Japan, on W Kyushu: almost completely destroyed in 1945 by the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan by the US; shipbuilding industry. Pop: 419 901 (2002 est)

"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

Nagasaki Cultural  
  1. City in southern Japan; one of Japan's leading ports and shipbuilding centers.


Discover More

The first Japanese port to welcome Western traders in the sixteenth century, it was the only Japanese port open to the West from 1641 to 1858.

Nagasaki became the second populated area to be devastated by an atomic bomb (see also atomic bomb), on August 9, 1945. (See also Hiroshima (see also Hiroshima).)

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.

"Sideways locomotion may have contributed significantly to the ecological success of true crabs," says senior corresponding author Yuuki Kawabata, Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Nagasaki University, Japan.

From Science Daily • May 2, 2026

The United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in combat, obliterating the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, killing some 214,000 people.

From Barron's • Apr. 23, 2026

“It’s absurd to expect the Americans to come to our aid when our own people aren’t even defending our own country,” said Masashi Kajiyama, who is in his 60s and lives in Nagasaki.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026

The boat was in Japan's exclusive economic zone off Nagasaki Prefecture in the south-west when it was intercepted and its captain arrested on Thursday, according to the country's fisheries agency.

From BBC • Feb. 12, 2026

Two days later, a second plane took off from Tinian and dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac

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