Palo Alto

/ˌpæloʊ ˈæltoʊ/

proper noun

A city in Santa Clara County, California, United States.

OriginSpanish palo alto →
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Meanings

proper noun
  1. A city in Santa Clara County, California, United States.
    1 more example

    Criminal justice reform has become a national topic of discussion given recent police killings of Black men, and Jones points out that he's been a longtime activist on this issue, with his experience in Palo Alto and as an NAACP youth organizer. Also, he notes, as a Black man, "People like me are overpoliced, overarrested, overprosecuted."

    2020 June 22, Trudy Ring, “Mondaire Jones Could Be the Nation's First Black Gay Congressman”, in The Advocate, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2021

Origin

  1. Spanishpalo alto
  2. EnglishPalo Alto

Borrowed from Spanish palo alto (literally “tall stick”), named after El Palo Alto, a more than 1000-year-old coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) tree near the city.

More words from Spanish

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Palo Alto. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Palo%20Alto

MLA

“Palo Alto.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Palo%20Alto. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Palo Alto,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Palo%20Alto.

Source: Palo Alto on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.