Great Lakes

American

plural noun

a series of five lakes between the United States and Canada, comprising Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior; connected with the Atlantic Ocean by the St. Lawrence River.

Great Lakes British

plural noun

a group of five lakes in central North America with connecting waterways: the largest group of lakes in the world: consists of Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, which are divided by the border between the US and Canada and Lake Michigan, which is wholly in the US; constitutes the most important system of inland waterways in the world, discharging through the St Lawrence into the Atlantic. Total length: 3767 km (2340 miles). Area: 246 490 sq km (95 170 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

Great Lakes Cultural

Group of five large freshwater bodies in central North America. They include, west to east, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Except for Lake Michigan, which is entirely within the United States, the Great Lakes serve as borders between the United States and Canada.

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Major shipping route through the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The nineteenth century’s “information super-highway” connected the Atlantic to the Great Lakes.

From Literature

For almost two decades, the couple have set out to spear sturgeon, the biggest—and perhaps most fiercely protected—fish in the Great Lakes.

From The Wall Street Journal

But temperatures in Florida will remain below normal and a surge of arctic air will blow across the Great Lakes and into parts of the Midwest by Tuesday and Wednesday.

From The Wall Street Journal

Natural-gas prices have jumped 63% this week in response to forecasts calling for some of the coldest, snowiest weather in years to freeze the country from the West Texas desert to the Great Lakes.

From The Wall Street Journal

"Our fight has the objective of peace, the protection of the population, the rebuilding of the state in DR Congo, as well as the stability of the Great Lakes region," the group added.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023