colombo
/kəˈlɒm.bəʊ/
colombo is the alternative form of calumba.
Meaning of calumba
Noun
calumba (uncountable)
- A bitter root of a plant (Jateorhiza palmata), indigenous to Mozambique, and used as a tonic and antiseptic.
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Colombo
Colombo
- 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.2022, Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Sort Of Books, page 266
- The Sri Lankan government.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Colombo
Colombo
- A surname from Italian.
Origin of colombo
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.
From Italian Colombo, from colombo (“pigeon, dove”).
Words that rhyme with colombo
Questions about colombo
- What does colombo mean?
- Colombo means the commercial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka.
- What is colombo the alternative form of?
- Colombo is the alternative form of calumba.
- What part of speech is colombo?
- Colombo is a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce colombo?
- Colombo is pronounced /kəˈlɒm.bəʊ/ (UK).
Words near colombo in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: colombo (page history and authors); Colombo (page history and authors); calumba (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Colombo.wav.
Cite this entry: “colombo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/colombo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.