Colombo

name, noun

name, noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of calumba. alt-of, alternative, uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka.

    "From this height, Colombo does not look like a mess. It sleeps in shadows decorated with trees and lights."

  2. 2
    A surname from Italian.

Synonyms

All synonyms
capital of sri lanka

Example

More examples

"My dream is to study Sinhala in Colombo."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Portuguese Colombo, modification (under the influence of the Italian surname, see below) of Sinhalese කොලොන් තොට (kolon toṭa, literally “port on the river Kelani”). Other theories derive the name from Veddah; see w:Colombo § Etymology for more.

Etymology 2

From Italian Colombo, from colombo (“pigeon, dove”).

Related phrases

sri lanka

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