the States
77
5.8
- noun
- Informal
:
Estados Unidos
- After spending a year abroad, he returned home to the States.
Yeah, I've gone through medical school here in the States.
- Yeah, I've gone through medical school here in the States.
- And we we're, we're we're against it in the States.
- It's just funny because since I never really rode the train in the States, it's not really a thing.
- We didn't think there was a different type of food available in the states in greater quantities.
- And then I, yeah, we all came back to the came back to the States four or five months in.
- Yeah, it you know, my parents moved to the States.
Examples
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When I traveled to Europe, I missed the food back in the States.
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My father financed her tour to the States.
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...and I was brought to the States.
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Nobody does work like this in the States.
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We can go back to the States together.
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We did come back to the States.
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Maybe we'll be going back to the States together, but it won't be the same, will it?
Fiction book (1990) -
Mallory made the necessary calls back to the States from their room.
Fiction book (1996) -
Well, I'm leaving for the States in a few days... and I've already told your people everything I know.
-
There's a writer here in the States named Naomi Klein.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A country in North America made of fifty states including Alaska and Hawaii
∞
1.0
A country in North America made up of 50 states often called the US
∞
1.0
A country in North America made of fifty states including Alaska and Hawaii
564
1.0
A country in North America made of fifty states
191
1.0
A country in North America made of 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii
1
9.7
A joking name for the United States often used with flags and pickup trucks
A country in North America made of fifty states, including Alaska and Hawaii
A country in North America made of 50 states
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + state
The phrase combines 'the' + plural 'States' where 'state' = nation, so learners can infer it refers to a specific collection of states (i.e., a country). However, identifying that it specifically denotes the United States as an informal name requires cultural/idiomatic knowledge and contextual capitalization, so the meaning is partially predictable but not fully derivable from the parts alone.
Etymology
The States is a short, informal way to say the 'United States'. People dropped the word 'United' and used States to talk about the many individual regions that make the country, so the States now simply means that country.