Cape May
6
4.8
- proper noun
- /keɪp meɪ/
- At the southern tip of New Jersey, Cape May is known for its beautiful beaches and vibrant boardwalk.
Examples
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When visiting New Jersey, be sure to check out the charming town of Cape May with its historic Victorian architecture.
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Many tourists flock to Cape May every summer to enjoy the coastal scenery and delightful local shops.
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The center of Hurricane Sandy is moving toward Southern New Jersey, near Cape May.
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At least nine own homes or condominiums in Brigantine, 11 in the Wildwood communities of Cape May County, 12 in Ocean City, and 16 on Long Beach Island in Ocean County.
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Point Pleasant, Seaside Heights, Wildwood, Cape May—all are fabulous and current memories.
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Surface Forms
Morphology
cape + May
The meaning is directly derivable because 'cape' denotes a promontory and the pattern 'Cape + [name]' is a transparent place-name construction; a learner who knows 'cape' will infer this is a cape called May. Even if 'May' is not defined here, the toponymic structure signals a named geographic feature and this compositional logic is common across languages, making it immediately understandable to B1 learners.
Etymology
Cape May may come from a Dutch captain named Cornelius May who sailed to the area in the 1600s. One popular story says people named the piece of land that sticks out into the sea, called a 'cape', after him, so today Cape May is the name of that cape and the nearby town.