Pontefract

American  

[pon-tuh-frakt, puhm-frit, pom-] / ˈpɒn təˌfrækt, ˈpʌm frɪt, ˈpɒm- /

noun

1. a city in West Yorkshire, in N central England, SE of Leeds: ruins of a 12th-century castle.

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Pontefract British  

/ ˈpɒntɪˌfrækt /

noun

1. an industrial town in N England, in Wakefield unitary authority, West Yorkshire: castle (1069), in which Richard II was imprisoned and murdered (1400). Pop: 28 250 (2001)

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Example Sentences

At the end of April 2024, Wai and Trickett, who both owned private security companies, were in Pontefract in West Yorkshire where a woman called Monica Kwong lived with her school-age son.

From BBC • Mar. 6, 2026

Duncan Atkinson KC said the alleged operation "involved persons connected with the Hong Kong authorities acting as if Pontefract were a town in China rather than Yorkshire".

From BBC • Mar. 5, 2026

Apprentice bricklayer Alfie Conway, 19, from Pontefract, was jailed for two years and three months at Sheffield Crown Court.

From BBC • Aug. 20, 2024

Martin Overton, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, said the whole experience was "quite surreal".

From BBC • Dec. 4, 2022

Here in 1303 Custance de Daneport of Pontefract had apostatised and was to be received back; trouble seems to have begun in that year, for the Prioress Agnes de Screvyn resigned.

From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen