Appalachia

[ ap-uh-ley-chuh, -lach-uh, -ley-chee-uh, -lach-ee-uh ]

noun
  1. a region in the eastern United States, in the area of the southern Appalachian Mountains, usually including northeastern Alabama, northwestern Georgia, northwestern South Carolina, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western Virginia, eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, and eastern Ohio.

  2. Geology. a Paleozoic landmass, the erosion of which provided the sediments to form the rocks of the Appalachian Mountains.

Origin of Appalachia

1
First recorded in 1920–25; back formation from Appalachian

Words Nearby Appalachia

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

How to use Appalachia in a sentence

  • The first problem of Appalachia to-day is the very same problem as that of western Pennsylvania in 1784.

    Our Southern Highlanders | Horace Kephart
  • Every stranger in Appalachia is quick to note the high percentage of defectives among the people.

    Our Southern Highlanders | Horace Kephart
  • Throughout Appalachia such words as last, past, advantage, are pronounced with the same vowel sound as is heard in man.

    Our Southern Highlanders | Horace Kephart
  • I cannot quit this topic without reference to the bizarre and original place-names that sprinkle the map of Appalachia.

    Our Southern Highlanders | Horace Kephart
  • The United States topographers report that in Appalachia, as a whole, the mountain slopes occupy 90 per cent.

    Our Southern Highlanders | Horace Kephart

British Dictionary definitions for Appalachia

Appalachia

/ (ˌæpəˈleɪtʃɪə) /


noun
  1. a highland region of the eastern US, containing the Appalachian Mountains, extending from Pennsylvania to Alabama

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 Appalachia

Appalachia

[ (ap-uh-lay-chuh, ap-uh-lach-uh) ]


A mountainous region in the eastern United States, running from northern Alabama to Pennsylvania, and including parts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and all of West Virginia.

Notes for Appalachia

A major coal-mining center and one of the most impoverished regions of the country.

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.