Tennessee

American

[ten-uh-see] / ˌtɛn əˈsi /

noun

a state in the southeastern United States. 42,246 sq. mi. (109,415 sq. km). Nashville. TN (for use with zip code), Tenn.
a river flowing from eastern Tennessee through northern Alabama, western Tennessee, and southwestern Kentucky into the Ohio near Paducah. 652 miles (1,050 km) long.

Tennessee British

/ ˌtɛnɪˈsiː /

noun

Abbreviation: Tenn, TN. a state of the E central US: consists of a plain in the west, rising to the Appalachians and the Cumberland Plateau in the east. Capital: Nashville. Pop: 5 841 748 (2003 est). Area: 109 412 sq km (42 244 sq miles)
a river in the E central US, flowing southwest from E Tennessee into N Alabama, then west and north to the Ohio River at Paducah: the longest tributary of the Ohio; includes a series of dams and reservoirs under the Tennessee Valley Authority. Length: 1049 km (652 miles)

"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

Tennessee Cultural

State in the south-central United States bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north; North Carolina to the east; Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south; and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. Its capital is Nashville, and its largest city is Memphis.

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One of the Confederate states during the Civil War.

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.

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Tennessee

The biggest specimen belonged to a Tennessee bottlebrush crayfish preserved in the collection at West Liberty University in West Virginia.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

She also noted that she had found love locally in Tennessee.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

Jada Star, a country singer from Tennessee, said: "I truly believe anyone can speak Welsh; it's such a lovely feeling to speak the language, it's a comfortable language."

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

They include a 2019 meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, with that state’s attorney general to discuss opioid litigation and a 2021 visit with unnamed U.S. senators in North Carolina.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

We also watch a video about a middle school in a town called Whitwell, Tennessee, population 1,600.

From "Linked" by Gordon Korman

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023