Durham

/ˈdʌ.ɹəm/

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Northern England/ˈdʊ.ɹəm/

Durham proper noun: a county in the Northeast of England; in full, County Durham.

Proper noun

Durham

A county in the Northeast of England; in full, County Durham.
A city, the county town of County Durham, England.
A unitary authority of County Durham, which replaced the county council in 2009 in all of County Durham except Darlington, Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees; in full, Durham County Council.
An English habitational surname from Old English from the city in England.
An outback town in Queensland, Australia.
A community in New Brunswick; named for Lord Durham, Governor General of Canada.
A community in West Grey, Grey County, Ontario.
A regional municipality east of Toronto Ontario; in full, Regional Municipality of Durham.
A township and unincorporated community in Washington County, Arkansas.
A census-designated place in Butte County, California; named for California politician W. W. Durham.
A town and census-designated place therein, in Middlesex County, Connecticut; named for the city in England.
An unincorporated community in Walker County, Georgia; named for Durham Coal and Coke Company.

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A township in Hancock County, Illinois.
An unincorporated community in Gibson County, Indiana.
A minor city in Marion County, Kansas; named for the breed of cattle.
A town in Androscoggin County, Maine; named for County Durham, England.
An unincorporated community in Lewis County, Missouri; named for a railroad employee.
A town and census-designated place therein, in Strafford County, New Hampshire.
A town in Greene County, New York; named for the town in Connecticut.
A city, the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina; named for landowner Bartlett S. Durham.
A township in Durham County, North Carolina, most of which is in the city.
An unincorporated community in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma; named for postmaster Doris Durham Morris.
A city in Washington County, Oregon; named for pioneer and Oregon Territory legislator Alberto Alonzo Durham.
A township and unincorporated community therein, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Noun

Durham (plural Durhams)

One of a breed of short-horned cattle, originating in the county of Durham, England, and noted for their beef-producing quality.

Forms of Durham

plural	Durhams

Origin of Durham

From Old English Dūnholm, which is from dun (“hill”) + Old Norse holm (“islet, island”). In order to get from Dunholm to Durham, two major processes had to take place. Firstly, the n at the coda of the first syllable, dun, underwent dissimilation. Specifically, by influence of the m in the coda of the following syllable (holm), said n denasalised and lenited to the oral r, thus dur. Secondly, after a weakening of the vowel quality in the more weakly-stressed syllable holm, this ending was misanalysed as the similar-sounding toponymic suffix, -ham, meaning home or farm. Doublet of Duresm and Dunelm.

Words formed from Durham

Phrases with Durham

Questions about Durham

What does Durham mean?: Durham means a county in the Northeast of England; in full, County Durham.
What part of speech is Durham?: Durham can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Durham?: Durham is pronounced /ˈdʌ.ɹəm/ (UK).

Words near Durham in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: Durham (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Durham.wav.

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