Tokyo

American  

[toh-kee-oh, taw-kyaw] / ˈtoʊ kiˌoʊ, ˈtɔ kyɔ /

Or Tokio

noun

1. a seaport in and the capital of Japan, on Tokyo Bay: one of the world's largest cities; destructive earthquake and fire 1923; signing of the Japanese surrender document aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, September 2, 1945.

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Tokyo British  

/ ˈtəʊkjəʊ, -kɪˌəʊ /

noun

1. the capital of Japan, a port on SE Honshu on Tokyo Bay (an inlet of the Pacific): part of the largest conurbation in the world (the Tokyo-Yokohama metropolitan area) of over 35 million people; major industrial centre and the chief cultural centre of Japan. Pop (city proper): 8 025 538 (2002 est)

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Tokyo Cultural  

1. Capital of Japan and largest city in the country, located on the island of Honshu at the head of Tokyo Bay; the administrative, financial, educational, and cultural center of Japan.

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Discover More

The world's largest city, Tokyo is also among its most modern.

It was heavily damaged by Allied bombing during World War II.

Tokyo became the capital of the Japanese Empire in 1868 when Japan began a period of intensive modernization.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Tokyoite
  noun

Example Sentences

Tokyo and Taipei were also well down, with Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Wellington also down.

From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026

Japanese authorities have sedated and captured a black bear, days after it was spotted roaming around a city near Tokyo.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026

Ernst Baerwald’s odyssey from a cushy childhood in Frankfurt to his final days in a beautiful Berkeley mansion, with a long sojourn in Tokyo along the way, reads like, well, a novel.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026

Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have used simulations to show that a small, newly developed X-ray telescope could help create a chemical map of the entire lunar surface.

From Science Daily • Jun. 6, 2026

That’s true of the computers in Tokyo, San Francisco, and Stockholm.

From "City Spies" by James Ponti