Smithsonian Institution

[smith-soh-nee-uhn]

noun

1. an institution in Washington, D.C., founded 1846 with a grant left by James Smithson, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge: U.S. national museum and repository.

Smithsonian Institution

/ smɪθˈsəʊnɪən /

noun

1. a national museum and institution in Washington, D.C., founded in 1846 from a bequest by James Smithson, primarily concerned with ethnology, zoology, and astrophysics

Smithsonian Institution

1. A group of over a dozen museums and research and publication facilities, such as the National Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of History and Technology, the National Zoo, and the National Gallery of Art. Many of the Smithsonian's buildings are on the Washington Mall. The institution is named after James Smithson, an Englishman whose bequest enabled its founding in the nineteenth century.

Example Sentences

To understand this development, it might help to consider the Smithsonian’s early history, as recounted in “Smithson’s Gamble: The Smithsonian Institution in American Life, 1836-1906.”

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What purpose does the Smithsonian Institution serve?

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Washington DC's famous Smithsonian Institution museums will stay open until at least next Monday, 6 October.

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The sustained pressure campaign began in January with an executive order to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government, which resulted in the Smithsonian Institution shuttering its office of diversity.

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Just as he has attacked colleges and universities, Big Law, public broadcasters, and diversity initiatives, the president is now fixated on the Smithsonian Institution.

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