ludgate hill
/lʌdɡeɪt hɪl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.14 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
1
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
A street in the City of London that runs from St Paul's Churchyard, joining Fleet Street at Ludgate Circus. There was once a railway station named Ludgate Hill.
Example Sentences
- "As for the other syllable of London’s name, the “ Dun ” or “ Strong Place,” was undoubtedly on the hill called Ludgate Hill, on which St. Paul’s Cathedral stands to-day."
- "It belonged to that incredible trio, St. Paul's, Ludgate Hill and Holborn, so close together that a long train could almost be in all three stations at once. Ludgate Hill has gone into the dusty limbo of forgotten stations, but its subterranean brassy bar long survived in the arches below, [...]."
Etymology
Despite the claim by the Norman-Welsh Geoffry of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae that Ludgate was so called for having been built by the ancient British king called Lud—a manifestation of the god Nodens—the name is believed by later writers to be derived from "flood gate" or "Fleet gate", from "ludgeat", meaning "back gate" or "postern", or from the Old English term "hlid-geat", meaning "postern" or "swing gate".
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /lʌdɡeɪt hɪl/