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Glite Dictionary
Duke City

Duke City

8.1
A nickname people use for Albuquerque, New Mexico
  • proper noun
  • Informal
translation icon : Duke City
  • Every summer, thousands of tourists visit Duke City for its famous festivals.

Examples

  • After college, she moved to Duke City to start her new job.

  • I visited Duke City last summer.

  • The basketball team from Duke City won the state championship this year.

  • Have you ever been to Duke City?

  • After college, she moved to Duke City to start her new job.

  • Every summer, thousands of tourists visit Duke City for its famous festivals.

  • The basketball team from Duke City won the state championship this year.

Synonyms

Albuquerque
vsDuke City
81 4.3

A city in central New Mexico in the United States on the Rio Grande and the state's largest city

is an informal nickname for that city

Surface Forms

Duke City main

Morphology

Duke + city

This is a local proper-name nickname: knowing 'duke' (a noble title) and 'city' (an urban area) does not allow a learner to infer that the phrase refers specifically to Albuquerque. The link is conventional and place-specific rather than compositional or metaphorically derivable, so the meaning is not predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Duke City may come from the man the town was named for, the Duke of Alburquerque. People used the idea of a 'duke' plus 'city' to make Duke City, so today it is a friendly 'nickname' for Albuquerque.