Library / English Dictionary

VIRGINIA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A town in northeastern Minnesota in the heart of the Mesabi Range

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

town (an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city)

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

Gopher State; Minn.; Minnesota; MN; North Star State (a midwestern state)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A state in the eastern United States; one of the original 13 colonies; one of the Confederate States in the American Civil War

Synonyms:

Old Dominion; Old Dominion State; VA; Va.; Virginia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (parts of "Virginia"):

Virginia Beach (the largest city in Virginia; long overshadowed by Norfolk but growing rapidly since 1970; with 28 miles of public beaches tourism is a major factor in the economy; site of three United States Navy bases)

Bull Run (a creek in northeastern Virginia where two battles were fought in the American Civil War)

Chancellorsville (a village in northeastern Virginia)

Fredericksburg (a town in northeastern Virginia on the Rappahannock River)

Petersburg (a town in southeastern Virginia (south of Richmond); scene of heavy fighting during the American Civil War)

Spotsylvania (a village in northeastern Virginia where battles were fought during the American Civil War)

Yorktown (a historic village in southeastern Virginia to the north of Newport News; site of the last battle of the American Revolution)

Mount Vernon (the former residence of George Washington in northeastern Virginia overlooking the Potomac river)

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

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

Chesapeake Bay (a large inlet of the North Atlantic between Virginia and Maryland; fed by Susquehanna River)

Clinch River (a river that rises in southwestern Virginia and flows generally southwestward across eastern Tennessee to the Tennessee River)

Elizabeth River (a short river in southeastern Virginia flowing between Norfolk and Portsmouth into Hampton Roads)

Hampton Roads (a channel in southeastern Virginia through which the Elizabeth River and the James River flow into Chesapeake Bay)

James; James River (a river in Virginia that flows east into Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads)

Potomac; Potomac River (a river in the east central United States; rises in West Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains and flows eastward, forming the boundary between Maryland and Virginia, to the Chesapeake Bay)

Rappahannock; Rappahannock River (a river that flows across eastern Virginia into the Tidewater region)

Shenandoah River (a river of northern Virginia that empties into the Potomac at Harpers Ferry)

Shenandoah Valley (a large valley between the Allegheny Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia; site of numerous battles during the American Civil War)

Roanoke (a city in southwestern Virginia)

Portsmouth (a port city in southeastern Virginia on the Elizabeth River opposite Norfolk; naval base; shipyards)

Lynchburg (a city in central Virginia)

Norfolk (port city located in southeastern Virginia on the Elizabeth River at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay; headquarters of the Atlantic fleet of the United States Navy)

Newport News (a port city in southeastern Virginia at the mouth of the James River off Hampton Roads; large shipyards)

Jamestown (a former village on the James River in Virginia to the north of Norfolk; site of the first permanent English settlement in America in 1607)

Blacksburg (a university town in southwestern Virginia (west of Roanoke) in the Allegheny Mountains)

capital of Virginia; Richmond (capital of the state of Virginia located in the east central part of the state; was capital of the Confederacy during the American Civil War)

Shenandoah National Park (a national park in Virginia for the Blue Ridge Mountains)

Domain member region:

siege of Yorktown; Yorktown (in 1781 the British under Cornwallis surrendered after a siege of three weeks by American and French troops; the surrender ended the American Revolution)

Wilderness Campaign (American Civil War; a series of indecisive battles in Grant's campaign (1864) against Lee in which both armies suffered terrible losses)

battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse; Spotsylvania (a battle between the armies of Grant and Lee during the Wilderness Campaign)

Petersburg; Petersburg Campaign (the final campaign of the American Civil War (1864-65); Union forces under Grant besieged and finally defeated Confederate forces under Lee)

Battle of Fredericksburg; Fredericksburg (an important battle in the American Civil War (1862); the Union Army under A. E. Burnside was defeated by the Confederate Army under Robert E. Lee)

Chancellorsville (a major battle in the American Civil War (1863); the Confederates under Robert E. Lee defeated the Union forces under Joseph Hooker)

Battle of Bull Run; Bull Run (either of two battles during the American Civil War (1861 and 1862); Confederate forces defeated the Federal army in both battles)

Wilderness (a wooded region in northeastern Virginia near Spotsylvania where bloody but inconclusive battles were fought in the American Civil War)

Holonyms ("Virginia" 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)

South (the region of the United States lying to the south of the Mason-Dixon line)

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

Confederacy; Confederate States; Confederate States of America; Dixie; Dixieland; South (the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861)

Sense 3

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

In a recent study of adults with early memory loss, scientists from West Virginia University found that practice of a simple meditation or music listening program may have multiple benefits for older adults with preclinical memory loss.

(Meditation, Music May Help Reverse Early Memory Loss in Adults, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A team led by Drs. Benjamin R. Thiede and Jeffrey T. Corwin at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, working in collaboration with the NIDCD team, revealed that another signaling molecule, retinoic acid, acts in concert with Bmp7 to position cells.

(Hearing different frequencies, NIH)

We were only looking for pairs of black holes at the time, and yet, through our selection technique, we stumbled upon this amazing system, said Ryan Pfeifle of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, the first author of a new paper in The Astrophysical Journal describing these results.

(Three Black Holes on Collision Course, NASA)

Neurons in the brain that produce the pleasure-signaling neurotransmitter dopamine also directly control the brain's circadian center, or body clock — the area that regulates eating cycles, metabolism and waking/resting cycles — a key link that possibly affects the body's ability to adapt to jet lag and rotating shift work, a new University of Virginia study has demonstrated.

(Neurons That Control Brain's Body Clock Identified, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Now, a study led by Emily Rivest of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science synthesizes the results of these behavioral studies—revealing both broad patterns and intriguing outliers—and provides a conceptual framework to help guide future research in this emerging field.

(Study considers sensory impacts of environmental change on ocean species, National Science Foundation)

The study, by researchers at the University of Connecticut, Virginia Commonwealth University and Purdue University, demonstrates for the first time that a forest's structural complexity is a better predictor of carbon sequestration potential than tree species diversity.

(Structural complexity in forests improves carbon capture, National Science Foundation)