New Amsterdam

American  

[am-ster-dam] / ˈæm stərˌdæm /

noun

1. a former Dutch town on Manhattan Island: the capital of New Netherland; renamed New York by the British in 1664.

2. a city in NE Guyana, on the Berbice River.

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New Amsterdam British  

noun

1. the Dutch settlement established on Manhattan (1624–26); capital of New Netherland; captured by the English and renamed New York in 1664

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New Amsterdam Cultural  

1. A city founded by Dutch settlers in the seventeenth century on the present site of New York City.

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An early governor of the Dutch colony surrounding New Amsterdam bought Manhattan Island, the present center of New York City, from the Native Americans for twenty-four dollars' worth of jewelry.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

New Amsterdam

In the city of New Amsterdam, they grew crops and constructed important sites, including the palisade in 1653 that gave today’s Wall Street its name.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

Under their agreement, the city of New Amsterdam would keep its mixed population and the Dutch features of capitalism and relative tolerance, but the settlement and its inhabitants would transfer to English rule.

From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2025

Fittingly called New Amsterdam Cafe, the popular hangout opened in Vancouver in 1998 and is as chill as Issa Rae’s Hilltop Coffee.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2024

For a dozen outposts of the Longchamps restaurant chain, Reiss provided scenery that transported diners to the South Seas, 17th-century New Amsterdam and futuristic rows of gilded skyscrapers.

From New York Times ● May 7, 2023

And all of New York was called New Amsterdam, run by a man named Peter Stuyvesant.

From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson

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