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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.


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)

"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

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.


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.

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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.

The Kospi piled on more than three percent, while Taipei added almost two percent, with Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Manila and Wellington also up.

From Barron's • Jun. 9, 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

Owned by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, they were part of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

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