Noun

the United States

  1. (singular) Shortened form of the United States of America.
  2. (plural) The collection of individual states of the United States of America.
  3. (military) Includes the land area, internal waters, territorial sea, and airspace of the United States, including the following:
    • US territories, possessions, and commonwealths; and
    • Other areas over which the US Government has complete jurisdiction and control or has exclusive authority or defense responsibility

Derived terms

From Wiktionary under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Sun Feb 21 00:13:00 2010

^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language.

^ c. Whether the United States or the People's Republic of China is larger is disputed. The figure given is from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's World Factbook. Other sources give smaller figures. All authoritative calculations of the country's size include only the 50 states and the District of Columbia, not the territories.

^ d. The population estimate includes people whose usual residence is in the fifty states and the District of Columbia, including noncitizens. It does not include either those living in the territories, amounting to more than 4 million U.S. citizens (most in Puerto Rico), or U.S. citizens living outside the United States.

The United States of America (commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km) and with about 309 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest both by land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the largest national economy in the world, with an estimated 2008 gross domestic product (GDP) of US $14.4 trillion (a quarter of nominal global GDP and a fifth of global GDP at purchasing power parity).

Indigenous peoples of Asian origin have inhabited what is now the mainland United States for many thousands of years. This Native American population was greatly reduced by disease and warfare after European contact. The United States was founded by thirteen British colonies located along the Atlantic seaboard. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their right to self-determination and their establishment of a cooperative union. The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, the first successful colonial war of independence. The Philadelphia Convention adopted the current United States Constitution on September 17, 1787; its ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The Bill of Rights, comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.

In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii. Disputes between the agrarian South and industrial North over states' rights and the expansion of the institution of slavery provoked the American Civil War of the 1860s. The North's victory prevented a permanent split of the country and led to the end of legal slavery in the United States. By the 1870s, the national economy was the world's largest. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a military power. It emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union left the United States as the sole superpower. The country accounts for two-fifths of global military spending and is a leading economic, political, and cultural force in the world.

From Wikipedia under the GNU Free Documentation License
Wed Mar 3 00:19:32 2010

Georges Ugeux: Why the United States Might Lose its AAA Rating
huffingtonpost.com
Georges Ugeux: Why the United States Might Lose its AAA Rating

Georges Ugeux

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 21:17:36 GM

A downgrade of the AAA rating of the . United States. would have profound consequences on our international reputation and leadership. We certainly do not need the aggravation.

Herpes Affects One in Six in United States , Jim Liebelt
crosswalk.com
Herpes Affects One in Six in United States , Jim Liebelt

Jim Liebelt

hu, 11 Mar 2010 05:22:00 GM

As many as one in six Americans is infected with herpes, and about half of the 19 million new infections each year are among young people. Read more blog posts from Jim Liebelt.

Watching America : Relations With The United States
watchingamerica.com
Watching America : Relations With The United States

Claudia Tabora

hu, 11 Mar 2010 12:04:03 GM

Clarin, Argentina Relations With The . United States. . By Editorial The gestures toward the region indicate that Argentina does not occupy a place of importance in Washington's agenda. Translated By CV Tabora 8 March 2010 ...

From Google Blog Search: "United States"
Sat Mar 13 06:39:19 2010

This article is for quotes about the United States of America, also known as the USA and the U.S.

This theme article needs cleanup. Please review , especially the , to determine how to edit this article to conform to a higher standard of article quality.

Contents

By native Americans

  • "America - a conservative country without any conservative ideology-appears now before the world a naked and arbitrary power, as, in the name of realism, its men of decision enforce their often crackpot definitions upon world reality. The second-rate mind is in command of the ponderously spoken platitude. In the liberal rhetoric, vagueness, and in the conservative mood, irrationality, are raised to principle. Public relations and the official secret, the trivializing campaign and the terrible fact clumsily accomplished, are replacing the reasoned debate of political ideas in the privately incorporated economy, the military ascendancy, and the political vacuum of modern America.
US Expresses Disappointment In Myanmar Election Laws - AHN | All Headline News
news.google.com
US Expresses Disappointment In Myanmar Election Laws

AHN | All Headline News

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - United States officials have expressed disappointment in new election laws announced by the military government of ...



and more »
Platinum Underwriters Holdings, Ltd. Announces Preliminary Loss Estimate From ... - MarketWatch (press release)
news.google.com
Platinum Underwriters Holdings, Ltd. Announces Preliminary Loss Estimate From ...

MarketWatch (press release)

Platinum operates through its principal subsidiaries in Bermuda and the United States . The Company's operating subsidiaries have financial strength ratings ...



and more »
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse trailer - Seven Sided Cube
news.google.com
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse trailer

Seven Sided Cube

What every girl is waiting for is coming 30 June 2010 in the United States , Here is a little preview from the movie. The last twilight wasn't doing so well ...



and more »

From Google News Search: "United States"
Thu Mar 11 21:05:38 2010

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protectingwater.com
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These United States
itstoolong.com
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by itstoolong on 10 Juli 2009 mp3 These United States I Want You to Keep Everything Ein schoenes Konzept haben sich These United States da ausgedacht Jesse Elliott hatte vor den US Wahlen im November zwei

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United States

From Yahoo Image Search: "United States"
Fri Mar 12 15:30:33 2010

How does the United States enter into a treaty agreement?
Q. Rank the following 6 actions in order from first to last action: A. The treaty is brought before the entire United States Senate where it is ratified by a two-thirds vote. B. Representatives of the United States meet with representatives of a foreign government and they negotiate a treaty. C. The President of the United States sends a copy of the treaty to the United States senate. D.The treaty has been agreed upon , formally written down, and signed by a representative of the U.S and foreign government. E.The treaty is sent to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations which decides to act upon it favorably. F. The foreign government is notified that the treaty has been formally ratified. Thanks for the help. I lost my textbook
Asked by Nerds Rule! - Fri Feb 29 10:53:13 2008 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments

A. bdcaef i think
Answered by erin marie - Fri Feb 29 10:57:51 2008

What is the United States doing in Afghanistan really?
Q. Honestly. They aren't trying to weed out terrorism, because even Americans could understand they are fighting an ideology and not a standing army (the government anyway, I know the people wouldn't understand). There can be no military victory in Afghanistan and all they are doing by raping yet another country is giving support to those they are trying to defeat. The Soviet Union failed, and they specifically targeted civilians while the United States is much more cautious in their actions to minimise civilian casualties. What is the United States' real goal in Afghanistan?
Asked by ohio state! - Sun Dec 6 17:06:20 2009 - - 7 Answers - 0 Comments

A. "Murray asserts that the primary motivation for US and British military involvement in central Asia has to do with large natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As evidence, he points to the plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan that would allow Western oil companies to avoid Russia and Iran when transporting natural gas out of the region. "Murray alleged that in the late 1990s the Uzbek ambassador to the US met with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to discuss a pipeline for the region, and out of that meeting came agreements that would see Texas-based Enron gain the rights to Uzbekistan's natural gas deposits, while oil company Unocal worked on developing the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline." You can… [cont.]
Answered by iris054 - Sun Dec 6 17:12:58 2009

How can the United States support Peacekeeping and the Criminal Court ending the genocide in Dulfur?
Q. How can the United States support Peacekeeping and the International Criminal Court, or working through the international community, as viable solutions to ending the genocide in Darfur?
Asked by Michael V - Sat Aug 16 23:27:21 2008 - - 4 Answers - 0 Comments

A. We do not have the political will to do much of anything else, whether it works or not. The politicians and the military strategerists are afraid of a repeat of Somalia, otherwise we would probably have US troops there already. I would personally like to see NATO get involved in a peace keeping mission there. The risk would be exposing them to terrorist attacks. Remember, it was the Sudanese who were harboring Osama Bin Laden before he went to Afghanistan.
Answered by Biff Kevlar - Sun Aug 17 00:35:10 2008

From Yahoo Answer Search: "United States"
Thu Mar 11 06:52:08 2010