Yorktown

American

[yawrk-taun] / ˈjɔrkˌtaʊn /

noun

a village in SE Virginia: surrender (October 19, 1781) of Cornwallis to Washington in the American Revolution.

Yorktown British

/ ˈjɔːkˌtaʊn /

noun

a village in SE Virginia: scene of the surrender (1781) of the British under Cornwallis to the Americans under Washington at the end of the War of American Independence

"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

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Yorktown

When the news reached London in November 1781 that Cornwallis had surrendered to the Continental Army at Yorktown, the London government realized that the war was lost.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

The only thing that vaguely approached an act of lèse-majesté against the head of the House of Windsor was the attendance of Mark Collins, the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Yorktown, Texas.

From Slate ● Apr. 28, 2026

Mr. Khatiri is a vice president and senior fellow at Yorktown Institute.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026

About the author: Joseph Epstein is director of the Turan Research Center and senior fellow at the Yorktown Institute.

From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2025

As Cornwallis waited for guns, supplies, and men to arrive by sea from New York, all the people in Yorktown suffered.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

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