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.
Born Sept. 2, 1951, in Chicago, Gray grew up in Miami Beach before making his way out west to pursue a career in Hollywood.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
Elizabeth Buffardi, a fee-only financial planner based in the Chicago area, developed her own spreadsheet to run analyses for clients, because none of the software appealed to her.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 23, 2026
Ye-ji responds with her own story, of making her way home at night as a waitress in Chicago, lighted by that same moon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
At a University of Chicago event on Oct.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2026
When banking stops, credit stops, and when credit stops, trade stops, and when trade stops—well, the city of Chicago had only eight days of chlorine on hand for its water supply.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
