Pennsylvania

[ pen-suhl-veyn-yuh, -vey-nee-uh ]

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

Words Nearby Pennsylvania

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How to use Pennsylvania in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

/ (ˌpɛnsɪlˈveɪnɪə) /


noun
  1. 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): Abbreviation: Pa, Penn, Penna, (with zip code) PA

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 Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

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.

Notes for Pennsylvania

One of the thirteen colonies.

Notes for Pennsylvania

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.

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.