use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

Georgia, Strait of
Share:
The northern part of the Salish Sea, lying between Vancouver Island, Canada, and mainland British Columbia and northern Washington State. It forms part of the Inland Passage to Alaska.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
Geor·gia (jôrjə)
Share:
1. A country in the Caucasus on the Black Sea. It developed as a kingdom around the 4th century BC and reached the height of its prosperity in the 12th and 13th centuries. Ruled by both Turkey and Persia at various times, Georgia was acquired by Russia between 1801 and 1878. The region was briefly independent (1918-1921), but was invaded by the Red Army in 1921 and proclaimed a Soviet republic. It was joined with Armenia and Azerbaijan to form the Transcaucasian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic from 1922 to 1936, when it became a separate republic, known as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic until declaring its independence in 1991. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi.
2. Abbr. GA or Ga. A state of the southeast United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies, it was founded in 1732 by a group led by the British philanthropist James Oglethorpe and named for King George II. Georgia ratified the United States Constitution in 1788. Atlanta is the capital and the largest city.
(click for a larger image)
Georgia

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.