name, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Proper Noun

1. 1
   Nickname for California: a state of the United States. colloquial

   "We drove to Cali / And got drunk on the beach"

2. 2
   A city in western Colombia, southwest of Bogotá.
3. 3
   Archaic form of Kali (“Hindu goddess”). alt-of, archaic
4. 4
   A river in Colombia which flows by the city.

Synonyms

All synonyms

californiasantiago de cali

Example

More examples

"Gunter told Amelia he was from Cali."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Clipping of California. Compare Vietnamese Ca Li.

Etymology 2

From Spanish Cali, from Calima.

Related phrases

Cali or bustunited states

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