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continental United States

American

[kon-tn-en-tl yoo-nahy-tid steyts] / ˌkɒn tnˈɛn tl juˈnaɪ tɪd ˈsteɪts /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

an official designation for the 49 states, plus the District of Columbia, that are located on the continent of North America, which does not include the state of Hawaii.

Etymology

Origin of continental United States

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

continental United States

WTI barrels, by contrast, sit in the continental United States and flow through pipelines to Gulf Cost refineries, said Germini, who’s also publisher of the “Energy Pipeline” newsletter on Substack.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 13, 2026

However, the US Congressional Research Service estimates they top out at about 3,000 kilometres -- less than a third of the distance to the continental United States.

From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026

Plus, a substantial portion of the continental United States is buried under a sheet of ice and snow, conditions that aren’t conducive to travel.

From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2026

Typically confined to polar regions, the aurora borealis is making an appearance in the continental United States this weekend thanks to an unusually strong solar storm.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2024

Agriculture occurred in as much as two-thirds of what is now the continental United States, with large swathes of the Southwest terraced and irrigated.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023