Word.ws English Dictionary

Thessalonica

US/ˌθɛsələˈnaɪkə/

Thessalonica is the alternative form of Thessaloniki.

Meaning of Thessaloniki

Proper noun

Thessaloniki

  1. A port city, the capital of Central Macedonia, in northern Greece.
    Synonyms:
    Thessalonica, Salonica, Salonika, Solun

Origin of Thessalonica

Borrowed from Latin Thessalonīca, from Ancient Greek Θεσσᾰλονῑ́κη (Thessălonī́kē), named for Thessalonike daughter of Philip II, half-sister of Alexander the Great, and wife of Cassander of Macedonia, from Θεσσᾰλός (Thessălós, “Thessalian”) + νῑ́κη (nī́kē, “victory”), possibly named for her birth on the anniversary of the Battle of Crocus Field in Thessaly.

Words formed from Thessalonica

Questions about Thessalonica

What is Thessalonica the alternative form of?
Thessalonica is the alternative form of Thessaloniki.
How do you pronounce Thessalonica?
Thessalonica is pronounced /ˌθɛsələˈnaɪkə/ (US).

Words near Thessalonica in the dictionary

  1. Thessalians
  2. Thessalic
  3. Thessalon
  4. Thessalonian
  5. Thessalonians
  6. Thessalonica
  7. Thessalonican
  8. Thessalonicans
  9. Thessaloniki
  10. Thessaloníki
  11. Thessaly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Thessalonica (page history and authors); Thessaloniki (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-ca-Thessalonica.opus.

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