What does boston mean?
Boston is best known as the capital and largest city of Massachusetts, and one of the oldest cities in the United States, founded in 1630 by Puritan settlers on the Shawmut Peninsula. It played a central role in the American Revolution — most famously through the Boston Tea Party of 1773 — and grew into a major port, intellectual hub, and cultural capital of New England, renowned for its universities, hospitals, and institutions such as the Boston Marathon, the world's oldest annual marathon. The name itself derives from Boston, a market town in Lincolnshire, England, meaning 'Botolph's stone' after the 7th-century saint Botolph. Beyond geography, capitalized Boston appears in countless compound terms for things associated with the city, from Boston baked beans to the Boston accent. In historical contexts, lowercase 'boston' names a whist-like card game fashionable in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Today the word overwhelmingly denotes the city, and 'Bostonian' identifies its people and character.
The capital and largest city of Massachusetts, United States; a major seaport and cultural center.
"Boston was founded by Puritan colonists in 1630."
(dated) A card game resembling whist, popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
"The guests whiled away the evening playing a hand of boston."
This sense is historical and almost never used in modern speech.
As a proper noun naming the city, Boston has no plural; plural forms appear only in phrases like 'two Bostons' comparing cities, which are rare.
"Of all the cities he had lived in, none reminded him more of his two Bostons — the student years and the working decades."
The name Boston comes from a small English town in Lincolnshire — literally 'Botolph's stone', after a 7th-century monk — and its Puritan founders carried that old English name across the Atlantic.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of boston
The name Boston was transferred from the town of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, whose name derives from 'Botolph's stone', referring to Saint Botolph, a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon abbot who became a patron saint of travelers and farming. When Puritan colonists from the region founded their New World settlement in 1630, they renamed it after their English hometown. The adjective 'Bostonian' was formed later from the place name. The card game called 'boston' takes its name from the city, though the precise reason is not firmly documented.
Related word forms
How boston is actually used
When referring to the city, Boston is capitalized as a proper noun. Lowercase 'boston' as a card-game term is largely historical and rarely encountered today. 'Bostonian' describes a person from Boston or relating to the city.
Easily confused with boston
Austin is the capital of Texas, whereas Boston is the capital of Massachusetts; the two city names share a similar rhythm but are unrelated.