United States

American  

[yoo-nahy-tid stayts] / juˈnaɪ tɪd ˈsteɪts /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. Official Name United States of America. a federal republic in the northern Western Hemisphere comprising 48 contiguous states, the District of Columbia, Alaska in North America, and Hawaii in the North Pacific, and in some contexts considered along with its five inhabited island territories (Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, North Mariana Islands,American Samoa ). Conterminous United States, 3,119,885 square miles (8,080,465 square kilometers); with Alaska and Hawaii, 3,796,742 square miles (9,833,517 square kilometers); all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the island territories, 3,805,927 square miles (9,857,306 square kilometers) Washington, D.C. U.S., US

---

Other Word Forms

• anti–United States
  adjective
• pro–United States
  adjective

---

Etymology

Origin of United States

First recorded in 1600–10, in reference to the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and in 1770–80 for the United States of America ( def. )

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

United States

Luis Grande, head of the Baires Fly airline which carried Bolsonaro, told AFP on Thursday he had been hired by a broker "who lives in the United States."

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

The United States, who came into the match on the back of five-match winning run that includes successes over Ireland and South Africa, hung tough however.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

“If they’re going to have a car that has a road map to autonomy, and it retails for less than the average new car in the United States, that’s a pretty positive formula.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

The United States is just beginning to understand the magnitude of the data-center build-out, according to Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, a finance professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026

Last year, during a geography lesson, he’d had to fill in the state names on a blank map of the United States and he couldn’t even do that.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---