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• Cotton Belt
  Cotton Belt

  noun

  the part of the southern U.S. where cotton is grown, originally Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, but now often extended to include parts of Texas and California.
• cotton belt
  cotton belt

  noun

  a belt of land in the southeastern US that specializes in the production of cotton

Cotton Belt

American  

noun

1. (sometimes lowercase) the part of the southern U.S. where cotton is grown, originally Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, but now often extended to include parts of Texas and California.

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cotton belt British  

noun

1. a belt of land in the southeastern US that specializes in the production of cotton

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Etymology

Origin of Cotton Belt

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

In many of the areas of the Cotton Belt, slaves were the majority of the population.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 27, 2025

Easily the raunchiest Confederate relic north of the Cotton Belt is Maryland’s never-in-mode state song, “Maryland, My Maryland.”

From Washington Post • Apr. 9, 2021

Amid a vast migration during the early 20th century, tens of thousands of black people came to California’s farm country from far-off states in the Cotton Belt and the Dust Bowl.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 24, 2019

Former Cotton Belt Railroad employee Ray Stevenson was born in 1961, just a toddler as segregation was ending for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

From Washington Times • Feb. 18, 2018

In a few minutes they came out and crossed the street, going to the Cotton Belt ticket office.

From Brann the Iconoclast — Volume 12 by Brann, William Cowper