Louisiana Purchase


nounU.S. History.
  1. a treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the U.S. purchased for $15,000,000 the land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

  2. the land included in this purchase.

Words Nearby Louisiana Purchase

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Louisiana Purchase in a sentence

  • But his vision of a greater America extended even beyond the limits of the Louisiana Purchase.

    Thomas Jefferson | Gilbert Chinard
  • State the constitutional question involved in the Louisiana Purchase.

    History of the United States | Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard
  • President Jefferson had seen almost with the vision of prophecy the future of that distant portion of the Louisiana Purchase.

    The Land We Live In | Henry Mann
  • The Louisiana Purchase was not an opportunity made, but only one accepted when it was tossed into the nation's lap.

  • After some hesitation, Jefferson and his advisers accepted the offer and the Louisiana Purchase was consummated.

    The American Empire | Scott Nearing

British Dictionary definitions for Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana Purchase

noun
  1. the large region of North America sold by Napoleon I to the US in 1803 for 15 million dollars: consists of the W part of the Mississippi basin. Area: about 2 292 150 sq km (885 000 sq miles)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana Purchase

The purchase by the United States from France of the huge Louisiana Territory in 1803. President Thomas Jefferson ordered the purchase negotiations, fearing that the French, then led by Napoleon, wanted to establish an empire in North America. The French had no such ambitions but were happy to exchange their vast landholdings for cash. The area that they sold, extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, more than doubled the size of the United States.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.