Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, a state in the south of Australia. It sits on a flat plain near the sea, with hills behind it. English speakers often talk about it as quieter and leafier than Sydney or Melbourne — still a real city, but not the huge, famous ones. You say AD-uh-layd, with the weight on the first part. Though actually, the name was a woman’s name first. The city was named after Queen Adelaide, wife of King William IV, when the colony was founded in the 1830s. The name came into English from French Adélaïde, and before that from Old High German Adalheid: adal “noble” plus heit “nature, character,” so something like “noble sort.” The same old German name, travelling another road, also gave English Alice. This entry is the city.