Illinois
1 Americannoun
plural
Illinois-
a member of a confederacy of North American Indians of Algonquian stock, formerly occupying Illinois and adjoining regions westward.
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the Algonquian language of the Illinois and Miami Indians.
noun
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a state in the central United States: a part of the Midwest. 56,400 sq. mi. (146,075 sq. km). Springfield. IL (for use with zip code), Ill.
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a river flowing southwest from northeastern Illinois to the Mississippi River: connected by a canal with Lake Michigan. 273 miles (440 km) long.
noun
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Abbreviation: Ill.. IL. a state of the N central US, in the Midwest: consists of level prairie crossed by the Illinois and Kaskaskia Rivers; mainly agricultural. Capital: Springfield. Pop: 12 653 544 (2003 est). Area: 144 858 sq km (55 930 sq miles)
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a river in Illinois, flowing SW to the Mississippi. Length: 439 km (273 miles)
Pronunciation
The pronunciation of Illinois with a final , which occurs chiefly among less educated speakers, is least common in Illinois itself, increasing in frequency as distance from the state increases.
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Known as the “Land of Lincoln” because Abraham Lincoln began his political career there.
Etymology
Origin of Illinois
1715–25, < French, earlier Eriniouai, Ilinoués, etc., from an unidentified Algonquian language, apparently literally, “one who sounds normal” (i.e., “a person who speaks an Algonquian language”), equivalent to the (unattested) Proto-Algonquian elements elen- “ordinary” + -we “make sound”
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 analysis relied on the Illinois Campus Cluster, operated by the Illinois Campus Cluster Program in partnership with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
From Science Daily
So far, the Bruins have been a part of four meets with record attendances in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington.
From Los Angeles Times
The PJM Interconnection grid, which spans 13 states from Illinois to New Jersey, has become ground zero in the fight over how to pay for AI growth.
Leah banished her only child, shipping Lizzie eight hundred miles away to live in Illinois with the father she barely knew.
From Literature
It lay in a strip from the foothills of the Ozark Mountains to the banks of the Illinois River in northeastern Oklahoma.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
