Virginia

American  

[ver-jin-yuh] / vərˈdʒɪn yə /

noun

1. a state in the eastern United States, on the Atlantic coast: part of the historical South. 40,815 square miles (105,710 square kilometers). Richmond. VA (for use with zip code), Va.

2. a town in northeastern Minnesota.

3. (italics) Merrimac.

4. a female given name: from a Roman family name.

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Virginia ¹ British  

/ vəˈdʒɪnɪə /

noun

1. (sometimes not capital) a type of flue-cured tobacco grown originally in Virginia

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Virginia ² British  

/ vəˈdʒɪnɪə /

noun

1. Abbreviation: Va.   VA.  a state of the eastern US, on the Atlantic: site of the first permanent English settlement in North America; consists of a low-lying deeply indented coast rising inland to the Piedmont plateau and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Capital: Richmond. Pop: 7 386 330 (2003 est). Area: 103 030 sq km (39 780 sq miles)

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Virginia Cultural  

1. State in the eastern United States bordered by West Virginia and Maryland to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, and Kentucky to the west. Its capital is Richmond, and its largest city is Virginia Beach.

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One of the thirteen colonies. The first permanent English settlement in North America was at Jamestown, founded in the early seventeenth century.

Named for Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen.”

One of the Confederate states during the Civil War.

Example Sentences

Then last summer, McFarland drove from his home in the northern state of Michigan to the US Library of Congress’ National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper in the southern state of Virginia.

From Barron's • Apr. 13, 2026

"I don't understand how blockading the strait is going to somehow push the Iranians into opening it," Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

In addition to California and West Virginia, several states are taking extra measures to limit harmful food additives.

From Salon • Apr. 11, 2026

As a colony that was less developed than Virginia and that possessed few geographic obstacles along George’s route, North Carolina, Mr. O’Malley surmises, represented a safer destination.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

After President James Madison’s second term ended in March 1817, the Madisons returned to Montpelier, their estate in Orange, Virginia.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis