PENNSYLVANIA

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Pennsylvania mean? 

• PENNSYLVANIA (noun)
  The noun PENNSYLVANIA has 3 senses:

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

  Familiarity information: PENNSYLVANIA used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PENNSYLVANIA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Keystone State; PA; Pa.; Pennsylvania

Instance hypernyms:

American state (one of the 50 states of the United States)

Meronyms (parts of "Pennsylvania"):

Gettysburg (a small town in southern Pennsylvania; site of a national cemetery)

Susquehanna; Susquehanna River (a river in the northeastern United States that rises in New York and flows southward through Pennsylvania and Maryland into Chesapeake Bay)

Monongahela; Monongahela River (a river that rises in northern West Virginia and flows north into Pennsylvania where it joins the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River)

Lehigh River (a river in eastern Pennsylvania that flows southeast into the Delaware River)

Blue Ridge; Blue Ridge Mountains (a range of the Appalachians extending from southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia)

Allegheny; Allegheny River (a river that rises in Pennsylvania and flows north into New York and then back south through Pennsylvania again to join the Monongahela River at Pittsburgh which is the beginning of the Ohio River)

Alleghenies; Allegheny Mountains (the western part of the Appalachian Mountains; extending from northern Pennsylvania to southwestern Virginia)

Pittsburgh (a city in southwestern Pennsylvania where the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River forms the Ohio River; long an important urban industrial area; site of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh)

City of Brotherly Love; Philadelphia (the largest city in Pennsylvania; located in the southeastern part of the state on the Delaware river; site of Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed; site of the University of Pennsylvania)

Chester (a city of southeastern Pennsylvania on the Delaware river (an industrial suburb of Philadelphia))

capital of Pennsylvania; Harrisburg (capital of Pennsylvania; located in southern part of state)

Erie (a port city on Lake Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania)

Bethlehem (a town in eastern Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River to the northwest of Philadelphia; an important center for steel production)

Altoona (a town in central Pennsylvania)

Allentown (a city in eastern Pennsylvania; an industrial and commercial center)

Penn; Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania (a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Domain member region:

Battle of Gettysburg; Gettysburg (a battle of the American Civil War (1863); the defeat of Robert E. Lee's invading Confederate Army was a major victory for the Union)

Holonyms ("Pennsylvania" is a part of...):

America; the States; U.S.; U.S.A.; United States; United States of America; US; USA (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)

Mid-Atlantic states (a region of the eastern United States comprising New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania and Delaware and Maryland)

Sense 2

Meaning:

One of the British colonies that formed the United States

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

Colony (one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

Penn; Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania

Instance hypernyms:

university (establishment where a seat of higher learning is housed, including administrative and living quarters as well as facilities for research and teaching)

Holonyms ("Pennsylvania" is a part of...):

Keystone State; PA; Pa.; Pennsylvania (a Mid-Atlantic state; one of the original 13 colonies)

Holonyms ("Pennsylvania" is a member of...):

Ivy League (a league of universities and colleges in the northeastern United States that have a reputation for scholastic achievement and social prestige)

 Context examples 

A team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania investigated the mechanisms that cause CCM lesions to form in genetically engineered mice and discovered an unexpected link to bacteria in the gut.

(Researchers connect brain blood vessel lesions to intestinal bacteria, NIH)

A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania aimed to develop a more selective technique by adapting an emerging approach used to fight cancer.

(Approach targets autoimmunity, NIH)

The Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania seeks the eradication of cancer through relentless progress in basic research, innovative translation of new knowledge through clinical trials, and state-of-the-art compassionate cancer care.

(Abramson Cancer Center, NCI Thesaurus)

The area in the United States comprised of the following states: New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

(North Mid-Atlantic States, NCI Thesaurus)

But poetry—do you know how Vaughn Marlow makes his living? —teaching in a boys' cramming-joint down in Pennsylvania, and of all private little hells such a billet is the limit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

New research from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Irvine backs up that parental insight.

(Children Who Nap Are Happier, Have Higher IQ, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A team led by Dr. Benjamin Prosser at the University of Pennsylvania set out to determine the role that MTs play in heart function.

(Microtubules’ role in heart cell contraction revealed, NIH)

In their new study, the researchers, along with Dr. Hyun Koo at the University of Pennsylvania, further examined fibroblasts moving in a 3-D matrix.

(New Mechanism of Cell Movement Revealed, NIH)

In the 1960s, University of Pennsylvania biologist Dan Janzen re-described what has become a classic example of biological mutualism: the relationship between acacia-ants and ant-acacia trees.

(Between ants and acacias, timing is everything, National Science Foundation)

A census division of the United States consisting of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

(Middle Atlantic Census Division, NCI Thesaurus)