Word.ws English Dictionary

Columbus

/kəˈlʌmbəs/

Columbus proper noun: a male given name from Latin. Also the plural of Columbu.

Proper noun

Columbus

  1. A male given name from Latin.
  2. A surname.
    1. Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), Italian explorer of the Americas.
  3. The capital city of Ohio, and the county seat of Franklin County.
    • And exactly a month to the date after kissing the world with her sixth studio album, Short n' Sweet (it's like she planned it or smth...), she's [Sabrina Carpenter] kicking off her Short n' Sweet Tour in Columbus, Ohio on September 23.2024 September 21, Heath Owens, “What to Wear to Sabrina Carpenter's 'Short N' Sweet' Tour”, in Cosmopolitan, archived from the original on 10 Dec 2024
    Synonyms:
    Col's
  4. A city, the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, with which it is consolidated.
  5. A village in Adams County, Illinois.
  6. A city, the county seat of Bartholomew County, Indiana.
  7. A city, the county seat of Cherokee County, Kansas.
  8. A tiny home rule city in Hickman County, Kentucky.
  9. A small city in Anoka County, Minnesota, previously a township.
  10. A city, the county seat of Lowndes County, Mississippi.
  11. An unincorporated community and inactive township in Johnson County, Missouri.
  12. A town, the county seat of Stillwater County, Montana.
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  1. A city, the county seat of Platte County, Nebraska.
  2. An unincorporated community in Burlington County, New Jersey.
  3. A village in Luna County, New Mexico.
  4. A town in Chenango County, New York.
  5. A town, the county seat of Polk County, North Carolina.
  6. A tiny city in Burke County, North Dakota.
  7. A small city, the county seat of Colorado County, Texas.
  8. A small city in Columbia County and Dodge County, Wisconsin.
  9. A town in Columbia County, Wisconsin.
  10. A number of townships, in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan (2), Nebraska and Pennsylvania, listed under Columbus Township.

Noun

Columbus (plural Columbuses)

  1. A person who makes a great discovery.
    • It is colossal. You are a Columbus of science who has discovered a lost world.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, “‘It’s Just the very Biggest Thing in the World’”, in The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 58

Verb

Columbus (third-person singular simple present Columbuses, present participle Columbusing, simple past and past participle Columbused)

  1. (dated, possibly, slang) To explore; to go around exploring, to go around as an explorer.
    • "But, boy the powers of mud, I belayve you fellers mane to make an indepindint cruise in the Orient, and go Columbusing all over the ocean boy the way ye's talk!"1893, American Boys Afloat: Or, Cruising in the Orient, page 150
    • Callous as the old mummy was about anything and everything save his pet hobby, archaeology, he would sit up and take notice of such a vision ; and Peter felt that, having Columbused the discovery, he had the better right to it.1908, Out West, volume 28, page 90
  2. (US, derogatory, slang) To appropriate; to lay claim to something, especially a discovery, which is perceived as belonging to someone else.
    • When his black friend tells him that many people knew about the bar before he did, his white friend retorts by saying that he “Columbused it”; i.e., discovered it for white people before a gaggle of hip white people flooded in.2014, Justin Simien, Dear White People, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 97
    • If you've danced to an Afrobeat-heavy pop song, dipped hummus, sipped coconut water, participated in a Desi-inspired color run or sported a henna tattoo, then you've Columbused something. […] Sometimes, though, Columbusing can feel icky. […] Of course, there is no bouncer, but we can be careful not...2014 July 6, Brenda Salinas, “‘Columbusing’: The Art Of Discovering Something That Is Not New”, in NPR, archived from the original on 08 Aug 2020

Also used as

Columbus is also the plural of Columbu.

Columbus meaning in Marathi, Odia and Vietnamese

Columbus in Marathi

surname
कोलंबस kolambas
given male name
कोलंबस kolambas
Christopher Columbus
कोलंबस kolambas

Columbus in Odia

Christopher Columbus
କଲମ୍ବସ୍ kalambas

Columbus in Vietnamese

Christopher Columbus
Kha Luân Bố, Colombo, Cristoforo Colombo

Examples of Columbus in a sentence

  • No street car line passes it, so you'll have to do a little Columbusing on your own account-to find it-—but it's worth discovering, and President Gardner's phophecy sounds conservative.1921, Forest Leaves, volume 15, page lxx:
  • He then lists other things that have been Columbused, such as twerking by Miley Cyrus and hummus by “health conscious whities.”2015, Frederic Charles Schaffer, Elucidating Social Science Concepts, Routledge, →ISBN, page 54:

Synonyms of Columbus

Forms of Columbus

Noun
pluralColumbuses
Verb
third-person singular presentColumbuses
present participleColumbusing
past participleColumbused
pastColumbused

Origin of Columbus

From Latin columbus (“a dove”). Doublet of Colombo. The common noun and verb are references to the Italian explorer.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from Columbus

Phrases with Columbus

Questions about Columbus

What does Columbus mean?
Columbus means a male given name from Latin.
What is Columbus in Marathi?
Columbus in Marathi is कोलंबस (kolambas). See Columbus meaning in Marathi.
How do you use Columbus in a sentence?
No street car line passes it, so you'll have to do a little Columbusing on your own account-to find it-—but it's worth discovering, and President Gardner's phophecy sounds conservative.
What part of speech is Columbus?
Columbus can be a proper noun, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce Columbus?
Columbus is pronounced /kəˈlʌmbəs/.

Words near Columbus in the dictionary

  1. columbiums
  2. columbo
  3. columboid
  4. Columbos
  5. Columbu
  6. Columbus
  7. Columbus Channel
  8. Columbus County
  9. Columbus Day
  10. Columbus egg
  11. Columbus eggs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Columbus (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)-Flame, not lame-Columbus.wav, En-au-Columbus.ogg.

Cite this entry: “Columbus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/columbus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.