EDAM, a town of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland and arrondissement of Hoorn, about 11 miles north-east of Amsterdam, and hardly a mile from the present limits of the Zuider Zee, at the junction of two branch canals. It has a fine town-house, an exchange, and a fish-market, and one of its two Reformed churches is adorned with stained glass, and ranks among the most beautiful buildings of the kind in the province. Ship-building, rope-spinning, and salt-boiling are carried on, and the place gives its name to a well-known description of “sweet-milk” cheese—Zoetemelks Kaas. It was at Edam that nearly the whole of Admiral De Ruyter's fleet was constructed. Population of the commune in 1869, 5152, and of the town 3356.