California

[kal-uh-fawrn-yuh, -fawr-nee-uh] / ˌkæl əˈfɔrn yə, -ˈfɔr ni ə /

NOUN

u.s. state

Synonyms

WEAK

Bear Flag State Cal El Dorado Gold Coast Gold Rush State Golden Bear State Golden Poppy State Golden State La La Land Sunkist State

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In spite of everything, here are 18 small to midsize music venues that have opened in recent years in Southern California.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2026

This campus will draw 1.4 gigawatts of energy, or enough to power the entire city of San Diego, California.

From Salon • Jun. 12, 2026

For Hockney, this was just as much a paradise as California in the 1960s.

From BBC • Jun. 12, 2026

“When you dream of this as a kid,” said midfielder Cristian Roldan, who grew up nearby in California, “you dream of moments like this.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026

FrontPoint and Cornwall were both missing from the piece, but the investor most conspicuously absent from the Bloomberg News article sat alone in his office, in Cupertino, California.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis