Yucatán

[ yoo-kuh-tan; Spanish yoo-kah-tahn ]

noun

1. a peninsula in SE Mexico and N Central America comprising parts of SE Mexico, N Guatemala, and Belize.
2. a state in SE Mexico, in N Yucatán Peninsula. 14,868 sq. mi. (38,510 sq. km). : Mérida.

Yucatán

/ jukaˈtan; ˌjuːkəˈtɑːn /

noun

1. a state of SE Mexico, occupying the N part of the Yucatán peninsula. Capital: Mérida. Pop: 1 655 707 (2000). Area: 39 340 sq km (15 186 sq miles)
2. a peninsula of Central America between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, including the Mexican states of Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo, and part of Belize: a centre of Mayan civilization from about 100 bc to the 18th century. Area: about 181 300 sq km (70 000 sq miles)

Yucatán

1. Peninsula mostly in southeastern Mexico , separating the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico .

Notes

It is the location of many Mayan ruins.

Example Sentences

Facing players much older than him, Valenzuela successfully pitched for several teams before moving on to the Yucatan Leones of the Mexican League in 1979 by the age of 18.

From Los Angeles Times

Long after the GOBE, about 66 million years ago, when ecosystems on land were as full of varied living things as the seas, a 6-mile-wide asteroid struck Earth at a place we now call Chicxulub, on the Yucatán Peninsula.

From Slate

Milton became a category one hurricane on Sunday and has been steadily moving eastwards, through the Gulf of Mexico, after brushing past Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.

From BBC

A low-pressure wind formation reached the Yucatán Peninsula last week and gained strength from a hotter-than-usual Caribbean Sea, intensifying from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in just a matter of days as the weather formation traveled up the hot Gulf of Mexico.

From Slate

To build the train, workers slashed a path the width of a football field across the Yucatán, a peninsula jutting between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea that is home to one of the Western Hemisphere’s largest rain forests.

From Los Angeles Times