Rhode Island

American

[rohd] / roʊd /

noun

a state of the northeastern United States, on the Atlantic coast: a part of New England. 1,214 square miles (3,145 square kilometers). Providence. RI (for use with zip code), R.I.

Rhode Island British

/ rəʊd /

noun

Abbreviations: R.I, RI. a state of the northeastern US, bordering on the Atlantic: the smallest state in the US; mainly low-lying and undulating, with an indented coastline in the east and uplands in the northwest Capital: Providence. Pop: 1 076 164 (2003 est). Area: 2717 sq km (1049 sq miles)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Rhode Island Cultural

State in the northeastern United States; one of the New England states. Bordered by Massachusetts to the north and east, the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and Connecticut to the west. Its capital and largest city is Providence.

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After he was banished from Massachusetts for speaking out in favor of religious toleration, Roger Williams established the first settlement in the area at Providence in the early seventeenth century.

One of the thirteen colonies.

Rhode Island is the smallest state of the United States.

Other Word Forms

Rhode Islander

noun

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.

See Examples For:

Rhode Island

Then, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island joins to discuss SCOTUS’s new term and the climate case Suncor v.

From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026

Mike Chadwick and his wife have been looking to buy a beach house in Rhode Island for the last year.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026

Live video has launched in nine markets, including Atlanta; Orlando, Fla.; Rhode Island and Phoenix.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

From Washington, D.C., to Rhode Island to Oregon, federal judges nominated by presidents from both parties, including Donald Trump, have zeroed in on what’s called “the presumption of regularity.”

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026

Chiron informed us that the Party Ponies had sent chapters from almost every state in the Union: forty from California, two from Rhode Island, thirty from Illinois .

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

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