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Illinois

   Also found in: Legal, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
Il·li·nois 1  (l-noi)
n. pl. Illinois
1.
a. A confederacy of Native American peoples formerly inhabiting southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and parts of eastern Iowa and Missouri, with present-day descendants mostly in Oklahoma.
b. A member of this confederacy.
2. The Algonquian language of the Illinois.

[French, of Algonquian origin.]

Il·li·nois 2  (l-noi) Abbr. IL or Ill.
A state of the north-central United States. It was admitted as the 21st state in 1818. The area was explored by the French in the late 1600s, ceded by France to the British in 1763, and ceded by them to the newly formed United States in 1783. Springfield is the capital and Chicago the largest city. Population: 12,900,000.

Illi·noisan (-noin) adj.

Illinois [ˌɪlɪˈnɔɪ]
n
1. (Placename) a state of the N central US, in the Midwest: consists of level prairie crossed by the Illinois and Kaskaskia Rivers; mainly agricultural. Capital: Springfield. Pop.: 12 419 293 (2000). Area: 144 858 sq. km (55 930 sq. miles) Abbreviations Ill (with zip code), IL
2. (Placename) a river in Illinois, flowing SW to the Mississippi. Length: 439 km (273 miles)
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.IllinoisIllinois - a midwestern state in north-central United States
middle west, Midwest, midwestern United States - the north central region of the United States (sometimes called the heartland or the breadbasket of America)
U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA, America, the States, U.S. - North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776
Cairo - a town at the southern tip of Illinois at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers
Carbondale - a town in southern Illinois
Champaign - a university town in east central Illinois adjoining Urbana
Chicago, Windy City - largest city in Illinois; a bustling Great Lakes port that extends 26 miles along the southwestern shoreline of Lake Michigan
Decatur - a city in central Illinois; Abraham Lincoln practiced law here
East Saint Louis - a town in southwest Illinois on the Mississippi across from Saint Louis
Moline - a town in northwest Illinois on the Mississippi River
Peoria - a city in central Illinois on the Illinois River
Rockford - a city in northern Illinois
Rock Island - a town in northwest Illinois on the Mississippi River; site of a Union prison during the American Civil War
capital of Illinois, Springfield - capital of the state of Illinois
Urbana - a university town in east central Illinois adjoining Champaign
Illinois River - a river in Illinois that flows southwest to the Mississippi River
Little Wabash, Little Wabash River - a river in eastern Illinois that flows southeastward to the Wabash River
2.Illinois - a member of the Algonquian people formerly of Illinois and regions to the west
Algonquian, Algonquin - a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Algonquian language and originally living in the subarctic regions of eastern Canada; many Algonquian tribes migrated south into the woodlands from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast
3.Illinois - the Algonquian language of the Illinois and Miami
Algonquian language, Algonquin, Algonquian - family of North American Indian languages spoken from Labrador to South Carolina and west to the Great Plains


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There is much reason to believe, that the territory which now composes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and a large portion of the country west of the Mississippi, lay formerly under water.
Comparing the humped herds of whales with the humped herds of buffalo, which, not forty years ago, overspread by tens of thousands the prairies of Illinois and Missouri, and shook their iron manes and scowled with their thunder-clotted brows upon the sites of populous river-capitals, where now the polite broker sells you land at a dollar an inch; in such a comparison an irresistible argument would seem furnished, to show that the hunted whale cannot now escape speedy extinction.
But these extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois.
 
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