Bombay

American  

[bom-bey] / bɒmˈbeɪ /

noun

1. Mumbai.

2. a former state in W India: divided in 1960 into the Gujarat and Maharashtra states.

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Bombay British  

/ bɒmˈbeɪ /

noun

1. the former English name of Mumbai

2. a breed of black short-haired medium-sized cat

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Bombay Cultural  

1. City in western India just off the coast of the Arabian Sea. It is now officially called Mumbai.

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India's second-largest city, after Calcutta, Bombay is the only natural deep-water harbor in western India.

Example Sentences

According to Prakash there are a few key moments when Bombay really changed - in the 1830s and 40s, when reclamations and bunds joined the seven separate islets into a single island city.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

While Bombay brought cinema to India, cinema lived on its streets and not just on celluloid.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026

From Nana, Sadia heard beguiling stories about her grandmother’s young life in Bombay and later years in Karachi, Pakistan, where she fled after the 1947 Partition of India.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Yes, Gulf statelets like Aden were overseen by the Bombay presidency, and yes, the India rupee was, for the most part, their legal tender.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

Headlines like “Untouchability Banished in India: Worshipped in America,” which appeared in a Bombay newspaper in 1951, mortified the US diplomatic corps.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly