กรุงเทพมหานคร

Explanation

กรุงเทพมหานคร is the formal Thai name for Bangkok. It can denote both the capital city and Bangkok Metropolis, a special administrative area rather than an ordinary Thai province. The name can be understood as กรุง “capital city” + เทพ “deity or celestial being” + มหา “great” + นคร “city,” giving the broad image of a “great city of angels.” In normal use, however, it is simply treated as a single place name. The shortened spelling กรุงเทพฯ is much more common in everyday use. The symbol ฯ marks an abbreviation. Another abbreviation, กทม., may refer either to Bangkok as an area or, depending on context, to its metropolitan government.

Usage

The full form is common in official documents, addresses, news reports, statistics, textbooks, and formal announcements. In everyday conversation about traveling to or living in Bangkok, speakers normally use the shorter form กรุงเทพฯ, as in ไปกรุงเทพฯ “go to Bangkok” and อยู่กรุงเทพฯ “be/live in Bangkok.”

Caution

Although บางกอก resembles the English name “Bangkok,” it is not the usual modern Thai name for the city as a whole. Also, Bangkok is not an ordinary จังหวัด (province), so its standard official name is กรุงเทพมหานคร rather than จังหวัดกรุงเทพมหานคร.

1 Bangkok synonyms

• กรุงเทพฯ

  kruŋthêep Bangkok

  กรุงเทพฯ is the standard shortened form and is common in everyday writing and speech. กรุงเทพมหานคร refers to the same place but sounds more formal and is especially common in official documents, news, and addresses.

• บางกอก

  บางกอก also means “Bangkok,” but in modern Thai it is uncommon as the ordinary name of the whole city. It survives mainly in historical contexts and in certain place or organization names; กรุงเทพมหานคร or กรุงเทพฯ is normally used instead.