Word.ws English Dictionary

gazetteer

Syllables: ga·zet·teer/ˌɡæzəˈtɪə/US/ˌɡæzəˈtɪəɹ/

gazetteer noun: a person who writes for a gazette or newspaper; a journalist; (specifically) a journalist engaged by a government.

Noun (1)

gazetteer (plural gazetteers)

  1. (archaic, historical) A person who writes for a gazette or newspaper; a journalist; (specifically) a journalist engaged by a government.
    • Mount novv to Gallo-belgicus: Appeare / As deepe as a States-man, as a Gazettier.1611, Ioannes Donne [i.e., John Donne], “[Panegyricke Verse by John Donne]”, in Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […]...
    • Did I tell you I have made Ford Gazetteer, with two hundred pounds a year salary, besides perquisites.1712 July 27 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Jonathan Swift, “[Dr. Swift’s Journal to Stella.] Letter L.”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […]...
  2. (broadly, obsolete) A gazette, a newspaper.
    • The Hoſt look'd ſtedfaſtly at Adams, and after a Minute's ſilence aſked him "if he vvas one of the VVriters of the Gazetteers? for I have heard," ſays he, "they are vvrit by Parſons." "Gazetteers!" anſvvered Adams. "What is that?" "It is a dirty Nevvs-Paper," replied the Hoſt, "vvhich hath been...1742, Henry Fielding, “A Dialogue between Mr. Abraham Adams and His Host, which, by the Disagreement in Their Opinions Seemed to Threaten an Unlucky Catastrope, had It Not been Timely Prevented by...
    • Confus'd above, / Glaſſes and bottles, pipes and gazetteers, / As if the table even itſelf vvas drunk, / Lie a vvet broken ſcene; […]a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 134, lines 557–560

Verb (1)

gazetteer (third-person singular simple present gazetteers, present participle gazetteering, simple past and past participle gazetteered)

  1. (transitive) Synonym of gazette (“to announce the status of (someone) in an official gazette”).
    • [A]s an old friend I've got one favour to beg and to request to be granted. […] Why, when you've been gazetteered as Sir Robert and Lady Smugglefuss, that I shall be the first to be honoured with a visit.1864, C[harles] J[ames] Collins, “A Congratulatory Meeting”, in Singed Moths: A City Romance […], volume II, London: John Maxwell and Company […], →OCLC, page 74
    • But the change was at hand, and two new major-generals and six brigadier-generals were gazetteered to the anxious country.1894 July, Charles R. Corning, “General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley”, in The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine Devoted to History, Biography, Literature, and State Progress, volume XVII, number...
    Synonyms:
    gazette
  2. (archaic, transitive) To report about (someone) in a gazette or newspaper.
    • [O]ur modern canibals of the gazetteering tribe, leſs delicate than they, can divert themſelves in cool blood vvith the pangs of their friends, and exert their more licentious brutality amidſt the miſeries of nations in ſtrict alliance vvith their ovvn;—if ſuch inſects can be deem'd of any nation.1756, “a man of business” [pseudonym], A Satirical Review of the Manifold Falshoods and Absurdities hitherto Publish’d Concerning the Earthquake. To which is Annext, an Authentic Account of the Late...
    • Patience, it will be our turn by and by, we shall have the honour of being Gazetteered in our place, at least I expect a whole paragraph in the 'Evening Post' for my own share.1841 October 30, “Memoirs of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Knt., Containing His Speeches and Poems. Edited by J. A. Manning, Esq. Boone. [book review]”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign...

Noun (2)

gazetteer (plural gazetteers)

  1. (transitive) A dictionary or index of geographical locations.
    • The kind Reception the Gazetteer has met vvith in the VVorld, manifeſted by the ſeveral Editions that have been of it, vvithin the compaſs of a fevv Years; and indeed, the Conveniency of a Compendious Undertaking of this kind, have induced us to go on vvith a ſecond Part, comprehending the other...1704, [Laurence Echard, compiler], “The Preface”, in The Gazetteer’s or Newsman’s Interpreter. The Second Part. Being a Geographical Index of All the Empires, Kingdoms, Islands, Provinces...
    • The "Polyolbion" [by Michael Drayton] is nothing less than a versified gazetteer of England and Wales,—fortunately Scotland was not yet annexed, or the poem would have been even longer, and already it is the plesiosaurus of verse. Mountains, rivers, and even marshes are personified, to narrate...1876, James Russell Lowell, “Spenser”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 137
  2. (broadly, transitive) A similar descriptive list (often alphabetical) of information on other subjects.
    • [A]ll the brighter stars of the sky are registered in their true relations one to another, on charts and photographic plates. […] When a higher precision is required, one must consult those gazetteers of the sky known as star catalogues.1897, David P[eck] Todd, “The Stars and the Cosmogony”, in A New Astronomy, New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Oh.: American Book Company, →OCLC, page 426
    • The mountain was McKinley. At twenty thousand feet, it was a third lower than Everest but, in the gazetteers of mountaineering, was highly prized because its rise from plain to peak – what climbers call the 'uplift', a technical description with a metaphor hiding behind it – is greater than that of...2013, Mark Lawson, “Continuing Service to Dead Horse: Alaska”, in The Battle for Room Service: Journeys to All the Safe Places, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 123

Verb (2)

gazetteer (third-person singular simple present gazetteers, present participle gazetteering, simple past and past participle gazetteered)

  1. (transitive) To describe the geography of (a country or other place) in a gazetteer (etymology 2, noun sense 1).
    • Such a cosmopolitan collection of post-marks is seldom made. They have a conventional range, from Buckingham Palace and Osborne, through university towns, scholars' libraries, remote parishes in Scotland, the seats of power in British India, to places Down East, and towns at the West not yet...1864, John Weiss, “Correspondence—Knowledge of the People—Hand-writing—Projected Work on the Development of Christianity”, in Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, Minister of the Twenty-eighth...
    • Neither of them could make poetry coalesce with gazetteering or chronicle-making. It was like trying to put a declaration of love into the forms of a declaration in trover.1876, James Russell Lowell, “Spenser”, in Among My Books. Second Series., Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 137

gazetteer meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

gazetteer in Hindi

dictionary or index of geographical locations
गैजेटियर gaijeṭiyar, गैजेट gaijeṭ, गजेटियर gajeṭiyar

gazetteer in Tamil

கருப்பொருள் களஞ்சியம், செய்தி விளக்கச் சுவடி, விவரச் சுவடி, விவரச்சுவடி

gazetteer in Urdu

جغرافیہ, مقام نامہ

gazetteer in Kannada

dictionary or index of geographical locations
ಗೆಜೆಟಿಯರ್ gejeṭiyar
More languagesFewer languages
gazetteer in Arabic
قَامُوس جُغْرَافِيّ qāmūs juḡrāfiyy
gazetteer in Malay
gazetir
gazetteer in Indonesian
gazetir
gazetteer in Persian
فرهنگ جغرافیایی farhang-e joġrâfiyâyi, جاینامه jâynâme
gazetteer in Thai
อักขรานุกรมภูมิศาสตร์ àk-kà-raa-nú-grom-puu-mí-sàat
Sindhi
گزيٽيئر gzeṭer

Examples of gazetteer in a sentence

  • Gazetteered as Lieutenant-Commander, he [Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh] was now twenty-nine years old, about the age when he might have expected such promotion.1981, Denis Judd, “A Career of One’s Own?”, in Prince Philip: A Biography, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, →ISBN, page 146:
  • This is the first volume of a gazetteer which is now being published.1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Baker Street Irregulars”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […]...
  • Unlike other prehistoric processes, there is no comprehensive gazetteer of radiocarbon dates for the entire Bell Beaker phenomenon apart from a few high-quality regional datasets[…].2024 February, Mark Vander Linden, “Where and When?”, in Manuel Fernández-Götz, Bettina Arnold, editors, The Bell Beaker Phenomenon in...
  • […] Wressley went back to the Foreign Office and his "Wajahs," a compiling, gazetteering, report-writing hack, who would have been dear at three hundred rupees a month.1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Wressley of the Foreign Office”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Calcutta: Thacker, Spink and Co.; London: W....

Synonyms of gazetteer

Forms of gazetteer

Noun
pluralgazetteers
Verb
third-person singular presentgazetteers
present participlegazetteering
past participlegazetteered
pastgazetteered

Origin of gazetteer

The noun is borrowed from French gazettier (archaic), gazetier (“journalist, newspaperman”) + English -eer (suffix forming agent nouns denoting people associated with or engaged in a specified activities). Gazettier, gazetier are derived from gazette (“newspaper”) + -ier (suffix denoting a profession); and gazette from Italian gazzetta, from Venetan gazeta, from gazeta dele novità (literally “a gazeta of news”) (referring to the cost of the newspaper, a gazeta being a Venetian coin of little value, whence English gazet (obsolete)), possibly a diminutive of Latin gaza (“riches, treasure; treasury”), ultimately from Old Median *ganǰam (“treasure; wealth”). The English word is analysable as gazette + -eer. The verb is derived from the noun.

The noun is derived from The Gazetteer’s, or Newsman’s Interpreter (1st edition, 1692), the name of a geographical index compiled by the English clergyman and historian Laurence Echard (c. 1670 – 1730); in the preface he said “The Title was given me by a very eminent Person, whom I forbear to name.” The preface also stated that the work was “partly design’d for all such as frequent Coffee-Houses, and other places for News”, that is, to help readers better understand the newspapers written by gazetteers or journalists (see etymology 1). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from gazetteer

Words that rhyme with gazetteer

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gazetteer

What does gazetteer mean?
Gazetteer means a person who writes for a gazette or newspaper; a journalist; (specifically) a journalist engaged by a government.
What is gazetteer in Hindi?
Gazetteer in Hindi is गैजेटियर (gaijeṭiyar), गैजेट (gaijeṭ), गजेटियर (gajeṭiyar). See Gazetteer meaning in Hindi.
How do you use gazetteer in a sentence?
Gazetteered as Lieutenant-Commander, he [Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh] was now twenty-nine years old, about the age when he might have expected such promotion.
What part of speech is gazetteer?
Gazetteer can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce gazetteer?
Gazetteer is pronounced /ˌɡæzəˈtɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of gazetteer?
The plural of gazetteer is gazetteers.

Words near gazetteer in the dictionary

  1. gazets
  2. gazettal
  3. gazettals
  4. gazette
  5. gazetted
  6. gazetteer
  7. gazetteered
  8. gazetteering
  9. gazetteerish
  10. gazetteers
  11. gazetteership

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gazetteer (page history and authors); gazetteer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gazetteer (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

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

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