Banbury

Ban·bu·ry
B3A1N1B3U1R1Y4
US, UK/ˈbænbɹi/

proper noun

A market town and civil parish with a town council, on the River Cherwell in Cherwell district, Oxfordshire, England (OS grid ref SP4540).

OriginOld English Bannanburg →
Less commonScrabble 14
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. A market town and civil parish with a town council, on the River Cherwell in Cherwell district, Oxfordshire, England (OS grid ref SP4540).
nounBanbury (countable and uncountable, plural Banburies)

plural Banburies

  1. countableuncountableA Banbury cake.
  2. countablehistoricaluncountableA yellow, strongly-flavoured cheese.
  3. countablehistoricaluncountableA type of codebreaking sheet printed in Banbury and used by Bletchley Park to decipher the Enigma cipher during World War II.

Origin

  1. Old English*Banna“name of a 6th-century Saxon chieftain said to have built a stockade in that place”
  2. Old EnglishBannanburg
  3. EnglishBanbury

From Old English Bannanburg, from Old English *Banna (“name of a 6th-century Saxon chieftain said to have built a stockade in that place”) or bana, bona (“a byname meaning ‘felon, murderer’”) (see bane) + burgh (“borough; settlement; town”).

More words from Old English

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Burnaby
Cite this entry
APA

Banbury. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Banbury

MLA

“Banbury.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Banbury. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Banbury,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Banbury.

Source: Banbury on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.