What does "pennsylvanian" mean?

A native or resident of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States of America.

How do you pronounce "pennsylvanian"?

Pronounced //ˌpɛn.səlˈveɪ.ni.ən//.

Common synonyms include: keystone stater, keystone stater, pennsylvanian period, period, time, upper carboniferous.

//ˌpɛn.səlˈveɪ.ni.ən// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A native or resident of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States of America.
2
a native or resident of Pennsylvania wordnet
3
Any of the three Pennsylvanian epochs.

Adjective

1
Of, or pertaining to the state of Pennsylvania. not-comparable
2
Of any of the three geologic epochs (lower, middle and upper) within the Carboniferous period from 318 to 299 million years ago; marked by a high oxygen atmosphere and the rise of reptiles and winged insects. not-comparable

From Pennsylvania + -an.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.