Lexington

L1E1X8I1N1G2T1O1N1
/ˈlɛk.sɪŋ.tən/

proper noun

A small city, the county seat of Oglethorpe County, Georgia.

CommonScrabble 17
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. A number of places in the United States:
    1. A small city, the county seat of Oglethorpe County, Georgia.
    2. A city, the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, consolidated with the county.

      The mayor of Lexington, Kentucky, is taking action to remove two Confederate-era monuments from his city’s former courthouse after the deadly clashes in Virginia.

      2017 August 13, Kimberly Hutcherson, “Kentucky city mayor: Confederate statues to come down after Charlottesville”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2020
    3. A town, the county seat of Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
    4. A township and village therein, in Sanilac County, Michigan.
    5. A city, the county seat of Holmes County, Mississippi.

      The Lexington Police Department “has created a system where officers can relentlessly violate the law” in one of the poorest counties in America, according to the Justice Department.

      2024 September 26, “Police in small Mississippi city discriminate against Black residents, Justice Department finds”, in CNN, sourced from Associated Press, archived from the original on 02 Oct 2024
    6. A city, the county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri.
    7. A city, the county seat of Dawson County, Nebraska.
    8. A city, the county seat of Davidson County, North Carolina.
    9. A town, the county seat of Lexington County, South Carolina.
    10. A city, the county seat of Henderson County, Tennessee.
    11. An independent city, the county seat of Rockbridge County, Virginia.
    12. A number of other townships, including in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas (2), Minnesota, Missouri, and Ohio, listed under Lexington Township.
  2. The battle of Lexington, one of the first battles in the American Revolutionary War, see Wikipedia:Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Origin

From Lexington, one of several predecessory forms of Laxton, A village in Laxton and Moorhouse parish, Newark and Sherwood district, Nottinghamshire, England (see Laxton for further etymology). Lexington, Massachusetts was the original municipality of that name in the United States. The town in Massachusetts may have been named either (1) after the eponymous village in Nottinghamshire, England, once called by Lexington and sundry other forms thereof, and today truncated to Laxton, or (2) after Robert Sutton, 2nd Baron Lexinton (whose title refers to the place in Nottinghamshire today known as Laxton). The other US cities and towns called Lexington, beginning with Lexington, Kentucky, were named after the town in Massachusetts, the site of an important Revolutionary War battle.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Lexington. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lexington

MLA

“Lexington.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lexington. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Lexington,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Lexington.

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