Pennsylvania

American  

[pen-suhl-veyn-yuh, -vey-nee-uh] / ˌpɛn səlˈveɪn yə, -ˈveɪ ni ə /

noun

1. a state in the eastern United States. 45,333 sq. mi. (117,410 sq. km). Harrisburg. PA (for use with zip code), Pa., Penn., Penna.

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Pennsylvania British  

/ ˌpɛnsɪlˈveɪnɪə /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Pa.   Penn.   Penna.   PA.  a state of the northeastern US: almost wholly in the Appalachians, with the Allegheny Plateau to the west and a plain in the southeast; the second most important US state for manufacturing. Capital: Harrisburg. Pop: 12 365 455 (2003 est). Area: 116 462 sq km (44 956 sq miles)

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Pennsylvania Cultural  

1. State in the northeastern United States bordered by Lake Erie and New York to the north; New Jersey to the east; Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia to the south; and Ohio to the west. Its capital is Harrisburg, and its largest city is Philadelphia.

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Discover More

Named after the father of William Penn, a devout Quaker, who was granted proprietary rights by the king of England to almost the whole of what is now Pennsylvania in the late seventeenth century.

One of the thirteen colonies.

Example Sentences

I attended a public elementary school in a small mill town in western Pennsylvania, and we had what we called “retention drills,” perhaps to make it sound less frightening.

From The Wall Street Journal

The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday voted 4-0 to accept a report from investigators in the crashes in Texas and Pennsylvania.

From The Wall Street Journal

One Friday night last year, Akylah Cox and her boyfriend took a red-eye flight from Pennsylvania to Dublin for a whirlwind adventure.

From Los Angeles Times

Outside California, Grocery Outlet appears to be closing eight stores in Maryland, six in New Jersey and six in Ohio, as well as a few in Pennsylvania and Idaho.

From Los Angeles Times

The work, published in Nature, was conducted by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and School of Nursing, along with collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University.

From Science Daily