Chicago
Americannoun
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Judy Judy Cohen, born 1939, U.S. artist, author, and educator.
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a city in NE Illinois, on Lake Michigan: second largest city in the U.S.
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a river formed in Chicago that flows through downtown and, as engineered, to the Des Plaines River: part of the Illinois Waterway.
noun
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Carl Sandburg, in his poem “Chicago,” called the city the “Hog Butcher for the World” because of Chicago's heavy involvement in the meatpacking industry.
During the time of Prohibition, Chicago was controlled by gangsters, Al Capone being the most notorious. Gangster warfare continued long after this particularly violent period.
Originally called the “Windy City” because the city bragged about the 1893 World Expo that was held there. The term has since come to refer to the strong northern winds that blow off the lake in the winter.
Chicago's downtown is referred to as the “Loop” because it is enclosed by elevated railways, called the “El.”
For many years the second largest city in the United States, before being displaced by Los Angeles, and therefore referred to as the “Second City.”
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.
Sydney was announced as the seventh city added to the Abbott majors series in 2024, joining London, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, New York, and Tokyo.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Nationals was held in Chicago in 1967, he boycotted the singles event until 1972, when he returned and won the title four years in a row.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
I couldn’t reach the project neutral, John C. O’Rourke Jr., a Chicago lawyer who has made this practice his specialty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
The service, dubbed Prime Air, offers drone delivery in as little as 30 minutes, and will launch to metro areas including Chicago, Atlanta, and Cleveland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Just send your posts to the usual address in Chicago, and I will read them when I return.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
