Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • An ancient city of Egypt south of Cairo. Reputedly founded by Menes, the first king of united Egypt, it was the chief city of the Nile delta until the foundation of Alexandria. Its remains include an extensive necropolis.
  • A city of southwest Tennessee on the Mississippi River near the Mississippi border. Established and named (1819) by Andrew Jackson on the site of a fort built in 1797, it was an important Union base after its capture by federal troops in 1862 during the Civil War. Memphis is today a major port and a tourist center famous for its associations with blues music.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A city of ancient Egypt.
  • proper noun The largest city in the state of Tennessee
  • proper noun The name of several towns or cities in the US.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ancient city of Egypt on the Nile (south of Cairo)
  • noun largest city of Tennessee; located in southwestern Tennessee on bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Μέμφις.

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