Mississippi

• Missippi (nonstandard)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌmɪ.sɪˈsɪ.pi/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪpi

Borrowed from Ojibwe misi-ziibi, ᒥᓯ᐀ᓰᐱ (misi-siipi, “great river”)

Mississippi

1. A state of the United States.
   • 2014 November 2, “State Legislatures and ALEC”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 23, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     That’s right. In fact, a law which passed in Mississippi is so restrictive, it could close the one remaining abortion clinic they have in the entire state, meaning a Mississippi woman, right now, could be saying to herself, “I need to go someplace more progressive like Alabama.”

2. A major river in the United States that flows from north-central Minnesota into the Gulf of Mexico.

• (state): the Magnolia State, the Hospitality State (nicknames); MS / MS. / Ms. / Ms, Miss. / MISS. / MISS (abbreviations)
• (river): the Big Muddy (also used for the Missouri), Big River, Body of a Nation, El Grande, El Grande de Soto, the Father of Waters, the Gathering of Waters, the Great River, the Mighty Mississippi, the Mississippi River, the Muddy Mississippi, Old Man River (nicknames)

Mississippi

1. Used in a common chronometric counting scheme, in which each iteration is sequentially numbered and supposed to be approximately one second in length.
   • 1996 September, “Cheers & Jeers”, in Field and Stream, volume 101, page 12:

     Any reader who uses the old “One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, etc.” method to estimate distance to a storm, and doesn't get any further than a count of five to eight had better be in a safe shelter.

Mississippi (plural Mississippis)

1. A recitation of “Mississippi” (interjection).
   • 1997, George Clark, The Small Bees’ Honey: Stories, Buffalo, NY: White Pine Press, page 129:

     I counted five Mississippis between each flash of lightning and the thunder crash that followed.

   • 2008, Tim Winton, chapter 3, in Breath, Picador UK Paperback 2008 edition, page 30:

     We had lungs like camel bladders by then; we sledged each other mercilessly, each daring the other to break the two-minute limit beneath the diving board. In the summer sea when it was flat-calm and there was nothing else to do but dive down and lie on the clean, ribbed bottom and hold our breaths to count Mississippis we got pretty close to our goal.

• Appendix:Words used as placeholders to count seconds
• Wikipedia article on the Mississippi River

Although its current spelling may be derived from that of its much larger American cousin, it is most certainly a corruption of a different indigenous name, as the translation “great water” would not apply to a relatively minor tributary of the Ottawa, definitely the largest river in the area. Instead, the name may originate from Mazinaa[bikinigan]-ziibi, Algonquian for “[painted] image river”, referring to the pictographs found on Mazinaw Lake, though this is by no means proven.

Mississippi

1. A river in Canada that flows from eastern Ontario into the Ottawa River.

• Mississippi River

• Mississippi River (Ontario) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from English Mississippi.

Mississippi (genitive Mississippis)

1. Mississippi (a state of the United States)

From English Mississippi.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmisisipi/, [ˈmis̠iˌs̠ipi]
• IPA^(key): /ˈmisːisːipːi/, [ˈmis̠ːis̠ˌs̠ipːi] (or any combination of short/long)
• Rhymes: -ipːi
• Syllabification^(key): Mis‧sis‧sip‧pi

Mississippi

1. Mississippi (a state of the United States)
2. Mississippi (river)

Borrowed from English Mississippi.

• IPA^(key): /mis.sisˈsip.pi/, /mis.siˈsip.pi/, /mis.siˈsi.pi/[1]
• Rhymes: -ippi, -ipi
• Hyphenation: Mis‧sis‧sìp‧pi

Mississippi m

1. Mississippi (a river in the United States)
2. Mississippi (a state of the United States)

• Mississípi, Mississipi

Mississippi m

1. Mississippi (a river in the United States)
2. Mississippi (a state of the United States)

• IPA^(key): [ˈmisisipi]

Mississippi n

1. Mississippi (a state of the United States)

• “Mississippi”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2024