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place name

place name

4 2.3
A name for a town, area, or land feature
  • noun
  • /pleɪs neɪm/
translation icon : topónimo
  • But, what use is a map without any place names?
  • geographic place name
  • place name mentioned
  • place name on product labels

Must every place name on earth be a shorthand for violence on a map of grief?

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Examples

  • Locations and relationships between sites and place names remain uncertain or disputed.

    Academic text (1992)
  • In her geography class, the teacher explained how each place name reflects the history of its region.

  • What kind of place name is that?

  • There was a real problem with geographic place names in the New World.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Is there any continuity of particular place names from one year to another?

    Academic text (1990)
  • As the grades progress, more and more place names are included.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Identify a reasonable number of place names that will repeatedly occur in the lives of students.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The increase in the number of place names from grade to grade in these textbook series is interesting.

    Academic text (1990)
  • While examining texts, we recorded the frequency and continuity of place names from grade to grade.

    Academic text (1990)
  • So these place names which seem exotic and mysterious point us back to a history which is actually durable and comprehensible.

Synonyms

toponym
vsplace name
  • Specialized
9.4

A name given to a place, like a town or river

is the everyday nontechnical word used for the same name

How Specific

street name
4 1.0
place name
4 2.3
city
1.0
region
977 2.0
country
1.0

Surface Forms

place name singular
place names plural

Morphology

place + name

The meaning is transparently composed from 'place' (a geographic location) and 'name' (a word that identifies), following a regular noun-noun compound pattern where the second noun names what the first refers to. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'nombre de lugar', French 'nom de lieu'/'toponyme'), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Place name comes from the simple idea of giving a name to a place. Long ago people called a village, river, or hill by a clear word so others would know which place it was, so place name now means the word used to 'identify' a specific location.