Chicago
Americannoun
-
Judy Judy Cohen, born 1939, U.S. artist, author, and educator.
-
a city in NE Illinois, on Lake Michigan: second largest city in the U.S.
-
a river formed in Chicago that flows through downtown and, as engineered, to the Des Plaines River: part of the Illinois Waterway.
noun
Discover More
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.
“People care if they’re in pain. People care if they can’t play with their grandkids. People care if they can’t walk up the stairs to see the Chicago Bears.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
Garfield, a pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, said his experiences with families in the neonatal intensive care unit helped motivate the research.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Kohler’s Integra, introduced as “the toilet of the future” at the Chicago fair, had a dramatic black finish made to equate sanitation with modern design.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
One of my favorite Chicago breakfast spots recently changed the way it serves Texas toast.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
We turn onto Astor Street, the famous road at the center of our downtown Chicago neighborhood.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
