Word.ws English Dictionary

Downing Street

Downing Street proper noun: a street leading off Whitehall in Westminster, London containing the residences of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Proper noun

Downing Street

  1. A street leading off Whitehall in Westminster, London containing the residences of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
  2. (broadly, metonymically) The British government.
    • […] both Whitehall and Downing Street are in a blue funk lest they should do the wrong thing, either let the man slip away with the papers or arrest him without them.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
    • Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack an “appalling incident” that was “deeply concerning”, while Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood said she was “saddened” and urged people to avoid comment and speculation. Downing Street is keen to quell rumours spreading online following an incident in...2025 November 3, Alex Kozul-Wright and News Agencies, “UK train stabbing attack – how it unfolded and what we know now”, in Aljazeera
  3. (broadly) Either 10 Downing Street or 11 Downing Street.
    • For all his faults and grandstanding, however, Prescott genuinely cared - and his ambitious plans for tram schemes and railway extensions were stymied by lack of support from Downing Street.2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 60

Origin of Downing Street

Named for its founder, Sir George Downing.

Questions about Downing Street

What does Downing Street mean?
Downing Street means a street leading off Whitehall in Westminster, London containing the residences of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
What part of speech is Downing Street?
Downing Street is a proper noun.

Words near Downing Street in the dictionary

  1. Downieville
  2. downily
  3. downiness
  4. downing
  5. Downing effect
  6. Downing Street
  7. downing tools
  8. downings
  9. Downingtown
  10. downish
  11. downladder

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Downing Street (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: en-au-Downing Street.ogg.

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