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Chicago.

A large city, the county seat of Cook County, in northeastern Illinois, United States, located on Lake Michigan.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

name/ʃɪˈkɑː.ɡəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ʃɪˈkɑ.ɡoʊ/General-American/ʃɪˈkɔ.ɡoʊ/General-American/ʃəˈkɑː.ɡo/
  1. A large city, the county seat of Cook County, in northeastern Illinois, United States, located on Lake Michigan.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Algonquian *šek- Proto-Algonquian *-a·kw- Proto-Algonquian *-a Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa Miami šikaakwabor. French Chécagoubor. English Chicago From French Chécagou, a transcription of Miami šikaakwa (“wild leek, ramp, Allium tricoccum; striped skunk”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa; compare Ojibwe zhigaagawanzh /zhigaagawinzh (“onion, leek”), zhigaag (“striped skunk”). Doublet of skunk.

noun/ʃɪˈkɑː.ɡəʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ʃɪˈkɑ.ɡoʊ/General-American/ʃɪˈkɔ.ɡoʊ/General-American/ʃəˈkɑː.ɡo/
  1. Any of various forms of the game of pool, designed for gambling.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Algonquian *šek- Proto-Algonquian *-a·kw- Proto-Algonquian *-a Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa Miami šikaakwabor. French Chécagoubor. English Chicago From French Chécagou, a transcription of Miami šikaakwa (“wild leek, ramp, Allium tricoccum; striped skunk”), from Proto-Algonquian *šeka·kwa; compare Ojibwe zhigaagawanzh /zhigaagawinzh (“onion, leek”), zhigaag (“striped skunk”). Doublet of skunk.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.