Seoul

See also: Séoul

English

Etymology

From Korean 서울 (Seoul, literally “capital city”), originally from Claude-Charles Dallet's French-based romanization of Korean, reinforced by the 1959 South Korean Ministry of Education romanization of Korean, which transcribed the Korean vowel ㅓ (/⁠ʌ⁠/) with the digraph "eo" and which was official until 1984.

Note that English Seoul predates the Revised Romanization romanization of Seoul. The two romanization systems simply produce identical forms.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səʊl/
• (General American) enPR: sōl, IPA^(key): /soʊl/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊl
• Homophones: sole, soul, sowl

Proper noun

Seoul

2. The capital city of South Korea, also the historical capital of Korea from 1394 until the country was divided in 1945.
   • 1956, Harry S. Truman, chapter 21, in Memoirs of Harry S. Truman: Years of Trial And Hope‎^[1], volume II, Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, page 320:

     The Joint Commission provided for in the Moscow agreement began its work at Seoul, the ancient capital of Korea, on March 20, 1946. This Commission, which was, of course, the key element in the plan agreed upon at Moscow, was deadlocked almost from the start.

   • 2023 March 21, Dong-hwan Ko, “Possibly next SOHO, Seoul selects 5 neighborhoods for new signature 'K-alleys'”, in The Korea Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 2023-05-13, National‎^[3]:

     With almost 10 million people living in 25 different districts and the Han River through the middle, Seoul offers more than even most locals who spend a considerable amount of time have time to see for themselves.

   • 2023 May 7, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Japanese prime minister visits Seoul, resuming ‘shuttle diplomacy’”, in The Washington Post‎^[4], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-07, Asia‎^[5]:

     Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul, reciprocating Yoon’s visit to Tokyo in March. In doing so, the two leaders marked the revival of their “shuttle diplomacy” to hold negotiations in each other’s countries and work through a series of thorny issues that have complicated their ties.

3. (metonymically) the South Korean government
   • 2022 June 21, “Seoul representative taking more ‘systematic’ approach”, in Taipei Times‎^[6], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on June 20, 2022, Taiwan News, page 2‎^[7]:

     To that end, Seoul and Taipei signed a reciprocal driver’s license agreement in February, with immediate effect, to make driving easier for visitors on each side, he said.

   • 2023 May 7, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Japanese prime minister visits Seoul, resuming ‘shuttle diplomacy’”, in The Washington Post‎^[8], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-05-07, Asia‎^[9]:

     After years of friction, Seoul and Tokyo are trying to collaborate more closely with each other and Washington to counter the looming geopolitical threats of China’s economic and military rise and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The Biden administration has welcomed their efforts.

Synonyms

• (historical) Hanseong
• (from Japanese) Keijō
• (from Mandarin Chinese) Han-ch'eng, Hanyang

Derived terms

• Seoulite

Translations

capital of South Korea

• Afrikaans: Seoel
• Albanian: Seoul m, Seuli m
• Amharic: ሴኡል m (seʾul), ሶል m (sol)
• Arabic: سِيئُول m (sīʔūl), سِيُول f (siyūl), سُول f (sōl)

  Hijazi Arabic: سِيول (siyōl)

• Armenian: Սեուլ (Seul)
• Assamese: ছিউল (siul)
• Azerbaijani: Seul
• Bashkir: Сеул (Sewl)
• Basque: Seul (eu)
• Belarusian: Сеу́л m (Sjeúl), Сэу́л m (Seúl)
• Bengali: সিওল (śiōl), সউল (śoul)
• Bulgarian: Сеу́л m (Seúl)
• Burmese: ဆီယူ (hciyu)
• Carpathian Rusyn: Соул m (Soul)
• Catalan: Seül (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 首爾／首尔 (sau² ji⁵), 漢城／汉城 (hon³ sing⁴)

  Eastern Min: 首爾／首尔 (Siū-ī), 漢城／汉城 (Háng-siàng)

  Hakka: 首爾／首尔 (Sú-ngì), 漢城／汉城 (Hon-sàng)

  Hokkien: 首爾／首尔 (Siú-ní, Siú-jíⁿ), 漢城／汉城 (Hàn-siâⁿ)

  Mandarin: 首爾／首尔 (zh) (Shǒu'ěr), 漢城／汉城 (zh) (Hànchéng)

  Wu: 首爾／首尔 (⁵seu-er), 漢城／汉城 (⁵hoe-zen)

• Corsican: Seul f
• Czech: Soul (cs) m
• Danish: Seoul (da) n
• Dutch: Seoel (nl) n, Seoul n
• Esperanto: Seulo (eo)
• Estonian: Soul (et)
• Finnish: Soul (fi)
• French: Séoul (fr) m or f
• Gagauz: Seul
• Galician: Seúl (gl) m or f
• Georgian: სეული (ka) (seuli)
• German: Seoul (de) n, (rare) Söul n, Soul (de) n
• Greek: Σεούλ (el) f (Seoúl)
• Haitian Creole: Seoul m or f
• Hebrew: סיאול
• Hindi: सिऊल m (siūl), सियूल m (siyūl), सियोल m (siyol)
• Hungarian: Szöul (hu)
• Icelandic: Seúl n
• Indonesian: Seoul
• Irish: Súl m
• Italian: Seul (it) f, Seoul m or f
• Jamaican Creole: Siol
• Japanese: ソウル (ja) (Souru)
• Jeju: 서울 (seoul), 서월 (seowol) (Seogwipo)
• Kabiyé: Sewuuli
• Kabyle: Seyul
• Kannada: ಸೌಲ್ (saul)
• Kashubian: Seul m
• Kazakh: Сеул (Seul)
• Khmer: សេអ៊ូល (km) (seeʼuul)
• Korean: 서울 (ko) (Seoul)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: سێئول (sê'ul), سیئۆل (sî'ol)

  Northern Kurdish: Sêûl (ku)

• Kyrgyz: Сеул (Seul)
• Lao: ເຊອູນ (sē ʼūn)
• Latin: (New Latin) Seulum n
• Latvian: Seula f
• Limburgish: Seoel n
• Lingala: Sɔul, Seoul
• Lithuanian: Seulas m
• Macedonian: Сеул m (Seul)
• Malay: Seoul
• Malayalam: സോൾ (sōḷ)
• Maltese: Seul m
• Maori: Heora
• Marathi: सोल n (sol)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: Сөүл (mn) (Söül)

• Nahuatl: Seul
• Navajo: Sééʼool
• Nepali: सिउल (siul), सोल (sol)
• Northern Luri: سئوٙل (seyūl)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Seoul

• Occitan: Seol m
• Odia: ସିଓଲ (siola)
• Pashto: سېول (seūl), سیول (siyūl)
• Persian: سئول (se'ul)
• Picard: Séoul
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: Soel
• Polish: Seul (pl) m
• Portuguese: Seul m or f
• Punjabi: ਸਿਓਲ m (siola)
• Quechua: Siyul, Seul
• Romanian: Seul (ro) n
• Russian: Сеу́л (ru) m (Seúl)
• Samogitian: Seuls m
• Sardinian: Seul f
• Scots: Seoul
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Сеул m

  Roman: Seul m

• Sicilian: Seul f
• Sindhi: سيول (siyūl)
• Sinhalese: සෝල් (sōl)
• Slovak: Soul (sk) m
• Slovene: Seul m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: Soul m

  Upper Sorbian: Seoul m

• Spanish: Seúl (es) m
• Swedish: Söul (sv) n, Seoul (sv) n
• Tagalog: Seúl, Seoul, Seyúl, Seyol
• Tajik: Сеул (Seul)
• Tamil: சியோல் (ciyōl)
• Tatar: Сеул (Sewl)
• Telugu: సియోల్ (siyōl)
• Thai: โซล (th) (sool), (obsolete) เซอูล
• Tibetan: སེ་ཨུལ (se ul)
• Tok Pisin: Sol
• Turkish: Seul (tr)
• Turkmen: Seul
• Ukrainian: Сеу́л (uk) m (Seúl)
• Urdu: سیئول m (siyūl), سیول m (seūl), سؤل m (sawūl)
• Uyghur: سېئول (së'ol)
• Uzbek: Seul
• Vietnamese: Xơ-un, Xê-un, Hán Thành (漢城)
• Walloon: Seyoul m or f
• West Frisian: Seûl n, Seoel n
• Yakut: Сеул (Seul)
• Yiddish: סעאָל n (seol)
• Zhuang: Soujwj

the name of Seoul during the Joseon dynasty — see Hanseong

the name of Seoul during the Japanese occupation period in the early 20th century — see Keijō

Hanyang — see Hanyang

See also

• Pyongyang, capital city of North Korea

Further reading

• “Seoul”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “Seoul, pn.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “Seoul”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “Seoul”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Seoul” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

Anagrams

• Eolus, Soule, eusol, loues, louse, oules, ousel, soule

Danish

Etymology

From Korean 서울 (Seoul, literally “capital city”).

Proper noun

Seoul

1. Seoul (the capital of South Korea)

Dutch

Proper noun

Seoul n

1. Alternative spelling of Seoel

Estonian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsou̯l/, [ˈsou̯l]
• Rhymes: -oul
• Hyphenation: Seoul
• Homophone: soul

Proper noun

Seoul (genitive Seouli, partitive Seouli)

1. Alternative spelling of Soul.

Declension

Declension of Seoul (ÕS type 22e/riik, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		Seoul	—
accusative	nom.
	gen.	Seouli
genitive			—
partitive		Seouli	—
illative		Seouli Seoulisse	—
inessive		Seoulis	—
elative		Seoulist	—
allative		Seoulile	—
adessive		Seoulil	—
ablative		Seoulilt	—
translative		Seouliks	—
terminative		Seoulini	—
essive		Seoulina	—
abessive		Seoulita	—
comitative		Seouliga	—

References

• “Seoul”, in [ÕS] Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2018 [Estonian Spelling Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2018, →ISBN

German

Alternative forms

• Söul, Soul (both rare)

Etymology

Borrowed from Korean 서울 (Seoul, literally “capital city”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈuːl/, /sɔʊ̯l/, /soːl/, /zeˈuːl/, /zɔʊ̯l/, /zoːl/
• Rhymes: -uːl, -ɔʊ̯l, -oːl

• Audio (Germany); /sɔʊ̯l/:

  (file)

• Homophone: Soul (some pronunciations)
• Hyphenation: Se‧oul

Proper noun

Seoul n (proper noun, genitive Seouls or (optionally with an article) Seoul)

1. Seoul (the capital city of South Korea)

Italian

Proper noun

Seoul m or f

1. Alternative spelling of Seul

Anagrams

• eluso, esulo, esulò, suole

Norwegian Bokmål

Panoramic skyline photo of Seoul, South-Korea.

Etymology

From Korean 서울 (seoul, “Seoul”), from Middle Korean 셔ᄫᅳᆯ (syeWul, “capital city”), possibly from Old Korean 徐羅伐 (서라벌 (Seorabeol)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɔʊl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔʊl
• Hyphenation: Seoul

Proper noun

Seoul

1. Seoul (the capital city of Seoul Capital Area, South Korea), also the historical capital of Korea from 1394 until the country was forcibly divided in 1945.

   Under Koreakrigen i 1950–1953 ble Seoul sterkt ødelagt.

   During the Korean War in 1950–1953, Seoul was severely destroyed.

References

• “Seoul” in Store norske leksikon

Swedish

Proper noun

Seoul n (genitive Seouls)

1. Alternative spelling of Söul