Tokyo

To·ky·o  (tk-, -ky) Formerly E·do (d)

The capital and largest city of Japan, in east-central Honshu on Tokyo Bay, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. Founded in the 12th century as Edo, Tokyo became the imperial capital in 1868. Much of the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1923 and by bombing raids during World War II. Population: 8,540,000.

Word History: The names of Japan's former and current capitals, Kyoto and Tokyo, appear to us to be made up of the same two elements reversed, but in fact they have only one element in common. The elements of T-ky are old borrowings from Middle Chinese: t means "east" and ky means "capital," so together they mean "east(ern) capital." Chinese has another word for "capital," pronounced d, whose Middle Chinese ancestor was borrowed into Japanese as to, "capital, large city." This is found in the name Kyoto, which was Japan's capital from 794 to 1192. The first part of Kyto, ky, is in fact the same word for "capital" found in Tokyo. Kyto thus means "capital city."

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Tokyo [ˈtəʊkjəʊ -kɪˌəʊ]

n

(Placename) 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-Yukohama metropolitan area) of over 25 million people; major industrial centre and the chief cultural centre of Japan. Pop.: 7 966 195 (1995)

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

Tokyo - the capital and largest city of Japan; the economic and cultural center of Japan Japanese capital, Tokio, Yeddo, Yedo, capital of Japan, Edo Hondo, Honshu - the central and largest of the four main islands of Japan; between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean; regarded as the Japanese mainland Nihon, Nippon, Japan - a constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building

Translations

Tokyo [ˈtəʊkjəʊ] N → Tokio m, Tokío m

Tokyo [ˈtəʊkiəʊ] n → Tokyo

Tokyo

n → Tokio nt

Tokyo [ˈtəʊkjəʊ] n → Tokyo f

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Tokyo [ˈtəʊkjəʊ] n → Tokyo f