Definitions

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

  • A city of southern Ukraine in the Crimea on the Black Sea west of Yalta. Founded on the site of an ancient Greek colony, it became Russia's principal Black Sea naval base after the late 18th century. The city resisted lengthy sieges during the Crimean War and World War II.

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

  • proper noun A port city in the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine, base of the Black Sea Fleet.

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

  • noun a city in southern Ukraine on the Black Sea

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Late 18th century. From Ukrainian and Russian Севастополь (Sevastópol’), from Greek Σεβαστόπολις (Sevastopolis) < σεβαστός (sebastós, "august") + πόλις (pólis, "city"), probably after Empress (=Augusta) Catherine II of Russia.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Sevastopol.

Examples

  • He noted that a statement made by Speaker of the Federation Council of Russia Sergey Mironov in which he called Sevastopol a city of "Russian glory" was contrary to historical fact.

    News on www.kyivpost.com 2009

  • Or how the Russian fleet potentially threatened vital shipping through the Suez from their base in Sevastopol?

    Matthew Yglesias » Strategic Significance 2010

  • Mentioning Sevastopol is beside the point – Crimea was never historically part of Ukraine, and is only part of Ukraine now because Khruschev made a stupid mistake.

    Matthew Yglesias » Strategic Significance 2010

  • At the same time, a provocation such as a murder of Russian sailors or a blow-up of a Russian warship will be organized in Sevastopol, the result being a civil war in Ukraine and a direct military conflict between the country and Russia.

    plausible russian predictions 2008

  • At the same time, a provocation such as a murder of Russian sailors or a blow-up of a Russian warship will be organized in Sevastopol, the result being a civil war in Ukraine and a direct military conflict between the country and Russia.

    04 « September « 2008 « Niqnaq 2008

  • Meanwhile, on one side, the leader of the breakaway Georgian territory of Abkhazia said he would invite Russia to establish a naval base there, and on the other, Ukranian President Viktor Yushchenko said he would open negotiations with Moscow on raising the rent on the Russian naval base at Sevastopol, which is in Crimea, a predominantly Russian province of Ukraine.

    Financial Disclosure 2008

  • He accused Ms. Kurylenko of betraying her homeland and wanting “Crimean girls to be raped by cruel and stupid American marines,” an apparent reference to the Ukraine-Russia dispute over Russia’s Crimean Black Sea Fleet HQ in Sevastopol.

    James Bond’s Secret Plot to Occupy the Crimea « Antiwar.com Blog 2008

  • Tolstoi's "Sevastopol," where the great novelist stripped warfare of all its sentiment and patriotic glitter, and revealed its dull, sordid misery as well as its hellish tragedies.

    Essays on Russian Novelists William Lyon Phelps 1904

  • There is little patriotic feeling in "Sevastopol," and its success was artistic rather than political.

    Essays on Russian Novelists William Lyon Phelps 1904

  • Tolstoi mentions the same event in "Sevastopol," and his version of it would have pleased Owen Wister's Virginian more than Browning's.

    Essays on Russian Novelists William Lyon Phelps 1904

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.