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Palo Alto

American  
[pal-oh al-toh, pah-loh ahl-toh] / ˈpæl oʊ ˈæl toʊ, ˈpɑ loʊ ˈɑl toʊ /

noun

  1. a city in W California, SE of San Francisco.

  2. a battlefield in S Texas, near Brownsville: first battle of Mexican War fought here in 1846.


Palo Alto British  

noun

  1. a city in W California, southeast of San Francisco: founded in 1891 as the seat of Stanford University. Pop: 57 233 (2003 est)

  2. a battlefield in E Mexico, northwest of Monterrey, where the first battle (1846) of the Mexican War took place, in which the Mexicans under General Mariano Arista were defeated by the Americans under General Zachary Taylor

"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

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.

See Examples For:

He grew up in the Bay Area and, after an early career stint reporting on the videogame industry, interned at his hometown paper, Palo Alto Weekly.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 9, 2026

The vast fortunes being minted in other corners of Silicon Valley had mostly missed East Palo Alto, Calif., where the Primary School opened in 2016.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 1, 2026

The Times article interviews some of the residents of Channing House, an assisted-living facility in Palo Alto, California, many of whom are well aware of what’s going on, and they are not happy.

From Salon Jul. 23, 2026

He explained that Palo Alto Networks’ next‑generation security platform is an “AI‑driven, unified platform that brings together network, cloud, security operations, and identity/trust … into a single prevention‑focused architecture.”

From MarketWatch Jul. 16, 2026

“I remember driving up from Palo Alto to San Francisco with L. W. Alvarez and Dr. Vannevar Bush when we discussed Oppenheimer’s activities in the nuclear weapons program,” he stated.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

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