Oklahoma

[oh-kluh-hoh-muh]

noun

1. a state in the south central United States. 69,919 square miles (181,090 square kilometers). Oklahoma City. OK (for use with zip code), Okla.

Oklahoma

/ ˌəʊkləˈhəʊmə /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Okla..  OK. a state in the S central US: consists of plains in the west, rising to mountains in the southwest and east; important for oil. Capital: Oklahoma City. Pop: 3 511 532 (2003 est). Area: 181 185 sq km (69 956 sq miles)

Oklahoma!

¹

1. A musical comedy by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It began a new era of sophistication in musical comedy and was the first of several very successful Rodgers and Hammerstein shows. “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning,” “Oklahoma,” and “People Will Say We're in Love” are songs from Oklahoma!

Oklahoma

²

1. State in the southwestern United States, bordered by Colorado and Kansas to the north, Missouri and Arkansas to the east, Texas to the south, and New Mexico to the west. Its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.

Other Word Forms

• Oklahoman adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Oklahoma¹

First recorded in 1895–1900; from Choctaw Oklahommaʔ “Indian (i.e., North American Indian)”, equivalent to oklah “people, nation” + ommaʔ “red,” coined by the Choctaw scholar and Presbyterian minister Allen Wright (1826–85), later principal chief of the Choctaw Nation (1866–70), and originally applied to the Indian Territory; Five Civilized Nations ( def. ), Indian Territory ( def. )

Example Sentences

Teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona walked out, demanding better pay.

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The Crimson Tide are ranked below three other SEC teams—No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 7 Ole Miss and No. 8 Oklahoma—and have a worse record than the Aggies and the Rebels.

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Mr. Harpham, a historian of political thought and intellectual history at the University of Oklahoma, undertakes “to put the history of ideas into close contact with the history of slavery.”

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In the most momentous basketball game in the history of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Ajay Mitchell played exactly 32 seconds.

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Wallen sings catchy odes to Tennessee; Bryan goes for heartfelt tributes to Oklahoma.

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