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United States

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

    Pronunciation

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    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /juːˌnaɪtɨd ˈsteɪts/, /jʊˌnaɪtɨd ˈsteɪts/
      • Audio (UK):(file)
    • (General American) enPR: yo͞o-nī'tĭd stātsʹ, IPA(key): /juˌnaɪtɪ̈d ˈsteɪts/, [juˌnaɪ̯ɾɪ̈d ˈsteɪ̯ts], [jɪ̈-]
    • Rhymes: -eɪts
    • Hyphenation: Unit‧ed States

    Proper noun

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    the United States

    2. (in the singular, formerly also plural) A country in North America, also including Hawaii in Oceania; in full, United States of America.
      • 1793 December 3, George Washington, Fifth State of the Union Address:
        As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those powers with whom the United States have the most extensive relations there was reason to apprehend that our intercourse with them might be interrupted and our disposition for peace drawn into question by the suspicions too often entertained by belligerent nations.
      • 1964, John F. Kennedy, “The Immigrant Contribution”, in A Nation of Immigrants‎[1], Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 64:
        As we have seen, people migrated to the United States for a variety of reasons. But nearly all shared two great hopes: the hope for personal freedom and the hope for economic opportunity.
      • 1965, Harry S. Truman, 0:26 from the start, in MP2002-401 Former President Truman Discusses "The Buck Stops Here"‎[2], Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162, archived from the original on 02 February 2021:
        I used to have a sign on my desk that said, "The Buck Stops Here." The buck stops at the president's desk when he's president of the United States, and he either makes the decisions or he lets them go by default, and you can't afford to do that when you're president.
      • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in AV Club‎[3], archived from the original on 1 July 2012:
        “King Homer” follows the story of King Kong closely, with Mr. Burns taking the freakishly over-sized King Homer from his native Africa, where he lives proud as a simian god, to the United States, where he is an initially impressive but ultimately rather limited Broadway attraction.
      • 2024 April 1, David Pierson, “The Bizarre Chinese Murder Plot Behind Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’”, in The New York Times‎[4], →ISSN, archived from the original on 6 April 2024:
        His bid to popularize Mr. Liu’s novels was a rare attempt to export Chinese popular culture — something that has eluded China as its government yearns to wield the same soft power the United States commands with its movies, music and sports stars.
      • 2024 November 25, Sean Lyngaas, “Starbucks forced to pay its baristas manually because of a ransomware attack on third-party software”, in CNN Business‎[5]:
        Cybersecurity firm Semperis found that 86% of surveyed organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany that faced ransomware attacks were targeted on a holiday or weekend.
      1. (by extension) The American federal government.
        The United States effectively nationalized Fannie and Freddie during the 2008 financial crisis to prevent their collapse.
    3. (in the plural) The collection of individual states of the United States of America.
      life in these United States
      The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. (Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, 1794)
      • 1781, January 10, Samuel Huntington, letter to John Adams:[6]
        Congress have no expectations from the influence which the people of England may have on the British counsels, whatever may be the disposition of that nation or their magistrates towards these United States.
      • 1955 February, William K. Goodspeed, William B. Buckingham, Oliver N. Evans, “The unsuitable enlisted seaman”, in United States Armed Forces Medical Journal‎[7], volume 6, number 2, page 244:
        A tour of military duty has become an accepted part of life in these United States for physically and mentally fit young men. Existing regulations clearly outline the minimum physical standards, and mental standards are based on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) which is a good objective measurement of ability to learn. There remains a significant group of men who meet these minimum physical and mental standards, and who enlist or are inducted into the armed services, but who are found to be unsuitable for service and shortly after entry are discharged.
    5. (nation's name) A federal nation consisting of several states, whether actual, historical or hypothetical.
      the Republic of the United States of Brazil (the First Brazilian Republic)
      the United States of Mexico (the United Mexican States)
      the United States of Europe
      the United States of the Ionian Islands

    Usage notes

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    • During the first few decades after independence authors commonly treated United States as a plural noun, but in contemporary English it is always singular.

    Meronyms

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    states of the United Statesedit

    Coordinate terms

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    countries in North America (appendix)edit

    Derived terms

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    Descendants

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    Translations

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    References

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    Further reading

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