Illinois

¹ American  

[il-uh-noi, -noiz] / ˌɪl əˈnɔɪ, -ˈnɔɪz /

noun

• Illinois
  plural

1. a member of a confederacy of North American Indians of Algonquian stock, formerly occupying Illinois and adjoining regions westward.

2. the Algonquian language of the Illinois and Miami Indians.

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Illinois ² American  

[il-uh-noi, -noiz] / ˌɪl əˈnɔɪ, -ˈnɔɪz /

noun

1. a state in the central United States: a part of the Midwest. 56,400 sq. mi. (146,075 sq. km). Springfield. IL (for use with zip code), Ill.

2. a river flowing southwest from northeastern Illinois to the Mississippi River: connected by a canal with Lake Michigan. 273 miles (440 km) long.

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Illinois British  

/ ˌɪlɪˈnɔɪ /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Ill..   IL.  a state of the N central US, in the Midwest: consists of level prairie crossed by the Illinois and Kaskaskia Rivers; mainly agricultural. Capital: Springfield. Pop: 12 653 544 (2003 est). Area: 144 858 sq km (55 930 sq miles)

2. a river in Illinois, flowing SW to the Mississippi. Length: 439 km (273 miles)

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Illinois Cultural  

1. State in the north-central United States bordered on the north by Wisconsin, the east by Indiana, the south by Kentucky, and the west by Missouri and Iowa. Its capital is Springfield, and its largest city is Chicago.

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Pronunciation

The pronunciation of Illinois with a final , which occurs chiefly among less educated speakers, is least common in Illinois itself, increasing in frequency as distance from the state increases.

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Known as the “Land of Lincoln” because Abraham Lincoln began his political career there.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Illinois
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Illinois

1715–25, < French, earlier Eriniouai, Ilinoués, etc., from an unidentified Algonquian language, apparently literally, “one who sounds normal” (i.e., “a person who speaks an Algonquian language”), equivalent to the (unattested) Proto-Algonquian elements elen- “ordinary” + -we “make sound”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Illinois

Born May 24, 1940, in Missouri and raised in Illinois and Minnesota, Cannom graduated from DePauw University in 1962.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026

Beth Pinsker worked out the numbers for a retiree who wants to spend winters in Florida and the rest of the year at home in Illinois.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

Published in Geology, the research involved scientists from the University of Southampton, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences and University of Potsdam, both in Germany, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the USA.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

A U.S. map in the planner transformed Kentucky into “Venecky,” Louisiana into “Lookoong,” Alabama into “Alotome,” Illinois into “Vitoiis” and South Carolina into “Sorth Cuanto.”

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

My dad drove me to Princeton in the summer of 1981, across the flat highways connecting Illinois to New Jersey.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama