Pompeii

American

[pom-pay, -pay-ee] / pɒmˈpeɪ, -ˈpeɪ i /

noun

an ancient city in SW Italy, on the Bay of Naples: it was buried along with Herculaneum by an eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in a.d. 79; much of the city has been excavated.

Pompeii British

/ pɒmˈpeɪiː /

noun

an ancient city in Italy, southeast of Naples: buried by an eruption of Vesuvius (79 _ad ); excavation of the site, which is extremely well preserved, began in 1748

"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

Pompeii Cultural

A city of the Roman Empire, on the Italian seacoast, that was known for the luxury and dissipated ways of its citizens. It was destroyed in the first century by an eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius.

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:

Pompeii

Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii and killing his uncle, Pliny the Elder.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

Their argument partly rests on a coin recovered from Pompeii that they believe could only have been produced in September.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

Hiddleston, who studied classics in college, for which he credits his trip to Pompeii, and so speaks a little Latin, is puckishly identified in a title as “amateur classicist.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

Plus, a judge temporarily blocks the Paramount-Warner deal, and Tom Hiddleston studied Latin to read graffiti at Pompeii.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

The legacy of Rome is dead and buried, just like Pompeii.

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023