Zhy·to·myr or Zhi·to·mir (zh?-tô?mîr) A city of west-central Ukraine west of Kiev. First mentioned in 1240, it was a way station on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, and was incorporated into Russia in the late 1770s.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.