Word.ws English Dictionary

Dorchester

/ˈdɔː(ɹ)ˌtʃɛstə(ɹ)/US/ˈdɔɹˌtʃɛstɚ/

Dorchester proper noun: a town and civil parish with a town council in Dorset, southern England, which is the county town (OS grid ref SY6990).

dorchester: a town and civil parish with a town council in Dorset, southern England, which is the county town...
Image: Wikideas1, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Dorchester

  1. A town and civil parish with a town council in Dorset, southern England, which is the county town (OS grid ref SY6990).
  2. A village and civil parish (served by Dorchester-on-Thames Parish Council) in South Oxfordshire district, Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames (OS grid ref SU5794).
  3. A civil parish and shire town in Westmorland County, New Brunswick, Canada.
  4. A town in Thames Centre municipality, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.
  5. A village and township in Macoupin County, Illinois.
  6. An unincorporated community in Waterloo Township, Allamakee County, Iowa.
  7. A neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts.
  8. A village in Saline County, Nebraska.
  9. A town in Grafton County, New Hampshire.
  10. A ghost town in what is now Dorchester County, South Carolina.
  11. A minor city in Grayson County, Texas.
  12. An unincorporated community and coal town in Wise County, Virginia.
  13. A village mostly in Clark County, Wisconsin.

Synonyms of Dorchester

Origin of Dorchester

Ultimately from Celtic *Durno-wāriā (Latin Durnovāria) + Old English ċeaster (“fort, Roman town”). The civil parish in New Brunswick and Ontario town are named in honour of colonial administrator Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester (1724–1808).

Words formed from Dorchester

Questions about Dorchester

What does Dorchester mean?
Dorchester means a town and civil parish with a town council in Dorset, southern England, which is the county town (OS grid ref SY6990).
What part of speech is Dorchester?
Dorchester is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Dorchester?
Dorchester is pronounced /ˈdɔː(ɹ)ˌtʃɛstə(ɹ)/ (UK).

Words near Dorchester in the dictionary

  1. Dorcelys
  2. Dorces
  3. Dorch
  4. Dorcha
  5. Dorches
  6. Dorchester
  7. Dorchester County
  8. Dorchester on Thames
  9. Dorchester-on-Thames
  10. dorcopsis
  11. dord

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Dorchester (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-Dorchester.wav.

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