Bologna

//bəˈloʊnjə// name, noun

name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A seasoned Italian sausage made from beef, pork or veal. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    Synonym of baloney (“nonsense”). uncountable
  3. 3
    large smooth-textured smoked sausage of beef and veal and pork wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A province of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    The capital city of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, the capital of Bologna and also of Emilia-Romagna. countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    A habitational surname from Italian. countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

"There are no direct flights to Bologna from here."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Italian Bologna, from Latin Bonōnia, ultimately from Celtic. Doublet of Boleyn and Boulogne.

Etymology 2

From the Italian city of Bologna.

Etymology 3

Probably from the Polari slang word balonie, respelled under the influence of the preceding homophonous word bologna (“sausage”); alternatively, perhaps simply an extended use of bologna (“sausage”). See baloney for more.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.