Word.ws English Dictionary

Stanford

US/ˈstænfəɹd/

Stanford proper noun: a habitational surname from Old English.

Proper noun

Stanford

  1. A habitational surname from Old English.
  2. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  3. A private university in Santa Clara County, California.
    • A contingent of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs have spurred a rightward shift, leading to the rise of the “Liberaltarian” — a term coined by two Stanford political economists to describe the tech industry’s proclivity toward trumpeting liberalism in some social issues but maintaining...2025 August 4, Mike Isaac, “A.I. Has Ushered in Silicon Valley’s ‘Hard Tech’ Era”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2025
  4. A hamlet in Southill parish, Central Bedfordshire district, Bedfordshire (OS grid ref TL1641).
  5. A village and civil parish in Folkestone and Hythe district, Kent (OS grid ref TR1238).
  6. A deserted village and civil parish (without a council) in Breckland district, Norfolk (now in a military area) (OS grid ref TL8594).
  7. A hamlet in Alberbury with Cardeston parish, Shropshire (OS grid ref SJ3312).
  8. A census-designated place in Santa Clara County, California, the location of the eponymous university.
  9. An unincorporated community in Latah County, Idaho.
  10. A village in McLean County, Illinois.
  11. A census-designated place in Van Buren Township, Monroe County, Indiana.
  12. A home rule city, the county seat of Lincoln County, Kentucky.
Show 4 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. A township in Isanti County, Minnesota.
  2. A town, the county seat of Judith Basin County, Montana.
  3. A town in Dutchess County, New York.
  4. A small village in the Western Cape province, South Africa.

Forms of Stanford

alternative formStanforth

Origin of Stanford

Various placenames from Old English stān (“stone”) + ford (“ford”). * (The university): Named after the son of railroad magnate Leland Stanford.

Words formed from Stanford

Phrases with Stanford

Questions about Stanford

What does Stanford mean?
Stanford means a habitational surname from Old English.
What part of speech is Stanford?
Stanford is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Stanford?
Stanford is pronounced /ˈstænfəɹd/ (US).

Words near Stanford in the dictionary

  1. Stanfield
  2. stanfieldite
  3. Stanfields
  4. Stanfill
  5. Stanfills
  6. Stanford
  7. Stanford Bridge
  8. Stanford bunnies
  9. Stanford bunny
  10. Stanford dragon
  11. Stanford dragons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Stanford (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:

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