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Glite Dictionary
Bean Town

Bean Town

7.5
A nickname for Boston, the capital of Massachusetts
  • proper noun
  • Informal
translation icon : Bean Town
  • Many tourists visit Bean Town each year to experience its rich history and culture.

Examples

  • She moved to Bean Town for college and quickly fell in love with the city.

  • The sports teams in Bean Town have some of the most passionate fans in America.

  • I love visiting Bean Town during the summer.

  • Have you ever been to Bean Town?

  • Many tourists visit Bean Town each year to experience its rich history and culture.

  • She moved to Bean Town for college and quickly fell in love with the city.

  • The sports teams in Bean Town have some of the most passionate fans in America.

Synonyms

Boston
vsBean Town
∞ 1.0

A large city in Massachusetts that is the state capital and a center for banks and finance

is the nickname form rather than the official city name
Beantown
vsBean Town
  • Informal
4 9.3

An informal name for the city of Boston

is written with a space between the two parts rather than as one word
Hub of the Universe
vsBean Town
7.7

A nickname for Boston as a busy center of culture, business, and history

is a general location nickname without stressing famous status

Surface Forms

Bean Town main

Morphology

bean + town

The components 'bean' + 'town' transparently suggest 'a town associated with beans', so learners can infer a literal association, but they will not reliably deduce the specific referent (Boston) without cultural/encyclopedic knowledge about Boston's baked-beans nickname. Because the mapping to the proper noun requires extra world knowledge beyond knowing the words, this is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Bean Town comes from the city's old love of baked beans, a popular dish of slow-cooked beans sweetened with syrup that people ate a lot in early times. So the name paints a picture of a town known for its beans, and today Bean Town is a friendly 'nickname' for 'Boston'.