# Gotham

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /ˈɡɒθəm/ · frequency rank #14,550

## Definitions
1. Nickname for New York City: a major city in New York, United States.
2. A village and civil parish in Rushcliffe borough, Nottinghamshire, England, associated in folklore with insanity (OS grid ref SK5330).
3. Ellipsis of Gotham City: a fictional city serving as the primary setting for the Batman franchise.

## Etymology
“Homestead where goats are kept”, from Old English gāt (“goat”) + hām (“home”).
* (New York City nickname): First used 1807 by Washington Irving in his Salmagundi Papers: see the quotation.
The original pronunciation had /th/ with later loss of /h/. The pronunciation with /θ/ is a spelling pronunciation that arose from a misreading of th as a digraph.

## Easily confused with
- **gotta** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gotham-vs-gotta)
- **Goths** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gotham-vs-goths)
- **graham** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gotham-vs-graham)
- **Gothic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gotham-vs-gothic)
- **goth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/goth-vs-gotham)
- **gotcha** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gotcha-vs-gotham)
- **goddam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/goddam-vs-gotham)

## Common misspellings (9)
`ggotham`, `gohtam`, `gotahm`, `gothamm`, `gothham`, `gothma`, `gottham`, `gtoham`, `ogtham`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/gotham