alameda

noun

al·​a·​me·​da ˌa-lə-ˈmē-də  -ˈmā- 

: a public promenade bordered with trees

Did you know?

Residents of the American Southwest may remember the álamo in alameda. This álamo is not the 18th-century Franciscan mission that was the site of a key battle in the fight for Texas independence, however, but the Spanish name for the poplar tree (the mission, the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, was named for the trees that grew near it). Spanish speakers used álamo as the basis for their word alameda, which can name either a grove of poplars or a tree-lined avenue. English speakers found alameda so appropriate for a shady public promenade that they borrowed it as a generic term in the 1700s. And yes, the Spanish alameda and nearby poplar trees also contributed to the naming of the city of Alameda, California.

Examples of alameda in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But what has resonated most, the words that adorn hundreds of monuments erected in plazas, streets, and playgrounds across the world, is his prophecy that someday the grandes alamedas, the great avenues lined with trees, would open for the free people of tomorrow to walk through. —Ariel Dorfman, The New York Review of Books, 31 Aug. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Spanish, from álamo poplar

First Known Use

1717, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for alameda

• pellucida
• cressida
• gravida
• lucida
• guida
• leda

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Geographical Definition

Alameda

geographical name

Al·​a·​me·​da ˌa-lə-ˈmē-də 

city and port on an island in San Francisco Bay that is separated from Oakland by an estuary in western California population 73,812