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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Penn·syl·va·nia

Audio Help [pen-suh

l-veyn-yuh, -vey-nee-uh] Pronunciation Key

–noun

a state in the E United States. 11,886,728; 45,333 sq. mi. (117,410 sq. km). Capital: Harrisburg. Abbreviation: PA (for use with zip code), Pa., Penn., Penna.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Pennsylvania

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Penn·syl·va·nia Audio Help (pěn'səl-vān'yə, -vā'nē-ə) Pronunciation Key
A state of the eastern United States. It was admitted as one of the original Thirteen Colonies in 1787. Explored by Europeans in the early 1600s, the region was settled by Swedes in 1634 and granted by royal charter to William Penn in 1681. The Mason-Dixon Line (surveyed in 1763-1767) established the southern boundary of the colony and was extended westward in 1784. Pennsylvania played a crucial role in the American Revolution and in the formation of the new republic. Harrisburg is the capital, and Philadelphia is the largest city. Population: 12,400,000.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Pennsylvania

American colony, later U.S. state, 1681, lit. "Penn's Woods," a hybrid formed from the surname Penn (Welsh, lit. "head") + L. sylvania (see sylvan). Not named for William Penn, the proprietor, but, on suggestion of Charles II, for Penn's late father, Admiral William Penn (1621-70), who had lent the king the money that was repaid in the form of land for a Quaker settlement in America. Penn wanted to call it New Wales, but the king's secretary, a Welshman of orthodox religion, wouldn't hear of it. Pennsylvania Dutch is attested from 1824. Pennsylvanian in ref. to a geological system is attested from 1891.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

pennsylvania
noun
1.	a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies
2.	one of the British colonies that formed the United States
3.	a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [syn: University of Pennsylvania]

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
Pennsylvania

State in the northeastern United States bordered by Lake Erie and New York to the north; New Jersey to the east; Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia to the south; and Ohio to the west. Its capital is Harrisburg, and its largest city is Philadelphia.

Note: One of the thirteen colonies.

Note: Named after the father of William Penn, a devout Quaker, who was granted proprietary rights by the king of England to almost the whole of what is now Pennsylvania in the late seventeenth century.

[Chapter:] American Geography

U.S. Gazetteer - Cite This Source - Share This

Pennsylvania Fur, PA Zip code(s): 16865

U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau

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