Gulf States

American  

[guhlf steyts] / ˈgʌlf ˌsteɪts /

plural noun

1. the states of the U.S. bordering on the Gulf of Mexico: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

2. Also called Persian Gulf States.  the oil-producing countries bordering on or located near the Persian Gulf: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

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Gulf States British  

plural noun

1. the oil-producing states around the Persian Gulf: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman

2. the states of the US that border on the Gulf of Mexico: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas

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Example Sentences

Robert Mogielnicki, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Paris, said that building new pipelines "will take time" and such infrastructure would "still possess vulnerabilities".

From Barron's • May 1, 2026

“This constellation of foreign investment from China and from Gulf States, with complex and sometimes competing relationships with the United States, demands rigorous, not perfunctory review,” Booker and the others wrote.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 24, 2026

“There’s a lot of demand still on what is a shrinking pot of money,” said Tim Callen, a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025

“It will be interesting to observe whether the group charts a new course in coming months,” said Gregory D. Johnsen, a Yemen expert at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

From New York Times • Mar. 11, 2024

They are most common in the Mississippi Valley, are rather common in the Gulf States, and have occurred throughout most of the East at one time or another.

From Reading the Weather by Longstreth, Thomas Morris