Skip to main content
Chennai

Chennai

4 2.8
A large city in southeast India and capital of Tamil Nadu
  • proper noun
: Chennai
  • In 2006, Dow Chemical built an engineering center in Chennai, India, to recruit more talent in building plants worldwide.
  • Chennai, India
  • Chennai (formerly Madras)
  • hospitals in Chennai

And there's one branch of it in Chennai, it's called IIT Madras.

Examples

  • Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, was born in Chennai, India, immigrating to the U.S. to attend Stanford in 1993.

  • One crew had flown down to Chennai and played a friendly match with this customs department.

    Blog text (12)
  • What time is it in Chennai, do you think?

  • Indeed today, in Chennai, these events continue.

  • - See you in Chennai.

  • I responded and was interviewed by representatives of the company, who came to Chennai.

    Academic text (2011)
  • From Kolkata, I flew to Chennai where I met a very nice Indian family.

    Blog text (16)
  • We could explore Chennai.

  • The study was conducted in Chennai, the capital city of India's southern state, Tamil Nadu (Figure 1).

    Academic text (2014)
  • The mayor will visit Chennai to strengthen Denver's ties with that sister city.

Surface Forms

Chennai main

Etymology

Chennai is thought to come from either the name of a local leader, Chennappa, or from the Tamil root chen meaning 'good' or 'beautiful', often added to pattinam meaning 'town'. So you can remember Chennai as 'Chennappa's town' or a 'beautiful town', which fits this big, lively city.