Calais

//ˈkæleɪ// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A city in Pas-de-Calais department, Hauts-de-France, France.
  2. 2
    A city in Maine.

Example

More examples

"We took the cross-channel ferry from Dover to Calais."

Etymology

From French Calais and Middle English Caleys (from Anglo-Norman Caleis), from the Roman name, Latin Caletum, named after the Caleti, a Gaulish tribe in the area, from Proto-Celtic *kaletos, from Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”). The placename is cognate with Breton calet, Middle Irish calath, and calad.

Related phrases

nord pas de calais

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