Alaska

American  

[uh-las-kuh] / əˈlæs kə /

noun

1. a state of the United States in northwestern North America. 586,400 sq. mi. (1,519,000 sq. km). Juneau. AK (for use with zip code), Alas.

2. Gulf of Alaska, a gulf of the Pacific Ocean, on the coast of southern Alaska.

---

Alaska British  

/ əˈlæskə /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Alas.   AK.  the largest state of the US, in the extreme northwest of North America: the aboriginal inhabitants are Inuit and Yupik; the earliest White settlements were made by the Russians; it was purchased by the US from Russia in 1867. It is mostly mountainous and volcanic, rising over 6000 m (20 000 ft), with the Yukon basin in the central region; large areas are covered by tundra; it has important mineral resources (chiefly coal, oil, and natural gas). Capital: Juneau. Pop: 648 818 (2003 est). Area: 1 530 694 sq km (591 004 sq miles)

2. the N part of the Pacific, between the Alaska Peninsula and the Alexander Archipelago

---

Alaska Cultural  

1. State in northwesternmost North America bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north; Yukon, Canada, to the east; the Pacific Ocean to the south; and the Bering Sea to the west. Its capital is Juneau, and its largest city is Anchorage.

---

Discover More

The forty-ninth state, admitted in 1959, and the largest.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Alaskan
  adjective

Compare meaning

How does alaska compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Alaska vs. Hawaii

Example Sentences

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Alaska Republican, laughed when I asked if he’d gifted her any shoes.

From Slate • Jun. 5, 2026

Dmitriev said a memorandum of understanding would be signed to look at a tentative project to build a tunnel under the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia’s largely deserted Far East.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026

He also announced the upgrading of 13 existing coal plants across the country, the construction of two new coal plants in Alaska and West Virginia, and restarting a shuttered coal plant in Maryland.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2026

Predicted precipitation patterns for May to September from 2026 to 2030 forecast wet anomalies in the Sahel, northern Europe, Alaska and Siberia, as well as dry anomalies over the Amazon.

From Barron's • May 28, 2026

She stood in front of a big map of Alaska that hung in the front of the room.

From "I Survived the Great Alaska Earthquake, 1964" by Lauren Tarshis